The Whole Story
by ebonyice
Summary: You want to know the whole story? The story of MWPP? You've come to the right place. This is about the marauders and friends in their Hogwarts years. Chapter 35: Prayers Unanswered and Chapter 36:The Guilty Mind. Ignore 5th Book facts! Other than that I t
1. The Life and Family of the Marauders

A/N: This is my first fan-fic so be kind. I've revised it and am reposting it because…I felt like it. Anyway, it's PG-13 for future chapter this one is pretty G though I'd say. This chapter is just setting up for what I hope to be a long story. I know, I know, this type of story is EVERYWHERE, but it's my favorite kind (gotta love MWPP). Enjoy! Review! Be Merry!

Disclaimer: Anything that you recognize doesn't belong to me. Anything that you don't recognize probably DOES belong to me. Got it? Here we go…

The Whole Story by Ebony_Ice 

CHAPTER 1- The Life and Family of The Marauders 

So, you want to know the whole story? You know what I mean, the story of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. Well, you've come to the right place. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that this is just another fairy-tale speculation, hardly based on truth. However, you would be wrong! I happen to have the whole inside story. However, to really tell this story, you're going to have to have to hear the story of their closest friends as well. What? Did you really think they were loners? Wrong again. At any rate, let's get started because I don't have all day. This is how it goes…

There once was a small, slightly chubby boy who had led a relatively simple life. He lived with his mother in small, but cozy house in the country. He lived miles from any other children and so besides school he never really had anyone his age to talk to, to listen to, or to just 'hang out' with. He often felt like he was all alone and wanted little more than to someday find true companions. It seemed as though the boy would never escape from his loneliness.

One day, the boy sat at the breakfast table, eating quietly, when a small brown owl swooped in from an open window and nearly landed in his eggs. The boy leapt out of his chair, causing it to fall over. He hated owls ever since he was a child, which was not good for the boy since his mother was a witch and there were constantly owls flying in and out of their windows. The boy spotted the letter that the owl was carrying and moved slowly to take it away.

"Nice owl. Good owl. Please, don't hurt me!" he pleaded, as his hand gradually inched closer. The owl gave him a strange look and hooted gently. "Ack!" The boy jerked his hand back. He stared at the owl for a moment before deciding that it wouldn't hurt him and slowly reached out and took the letter from the owl and hastily backed away. The owl hooted again and began to eat the boy's toast. "Hey! That's mine!" The boy moved forward, but the owl hooted, having picked up on his fear, and once again the boy retreated. "Okay, I guess you can have it." He watched as the owl picked up the piece of toast that it had been nibbling and flew away.

The boy stared out the window for a moment before he remembered the letter in his hand. He held it up to his face and saw that it was addressed to him. '**Who would owl me?'** The boy thought to himself. '**There's only one way to find out.'** He turned it over and saw the Hogwarts seal. '**It couldn't be! Could it?'** He was convinced that he would end up as a squib. He hadn't really shown any signs of being a wizard, so he had just assumed… '**But if I weren't a wizard, why would Hogwarts send me a letter?' **He reasoned. He was almost afraid to open the letter, what if it said something terrible? He stared at the letter for a moment, then decided he was being foolish and quickly ripped the letter open and he could barely believe what he saw.

"MUM! I GOT A LETTER FROM HOGWARTS! I'M GOING TO BE A WIZARD, MUM!" he cried. '**Can this be real! What if it's a trick? But who would do that?'** A young, exhausted looking woman walked into the room.

"What are you going on about, Peter?" she asked.

"I got a letter from Hogwarts, Mum!" he said with a slight glimmer in his eyes. "I'm a wizard!" The change that occurred in the woman's face was astonishing, to say the least. She looked as though someone had told her Christmas would come early this year.

"Let me see it!" She grabbed the letter out of his hands and read it over carefully. "Oh, Peter! You're going to be a great wizard I just know it! You're going to learn Potions, and Charms and Transfiguration and how to fly! Oh, Peter!" She was on the verge of tears as she took her son in her arms and whispered in his ear, "I'm so proud of you!"

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Elsewhere… a young, lanky sort of boy lay spread out across his bed. He was trying to rid himself from the pain left from the previous night, the full moon. Ever since he was 7 years old, the night of the full moon has been known to him as a night to be feared. You see, this boy wasn't like other boys his age, he was a wizard. Even stranger, he was a werewolf and it is because of this that he feared the full moon. His transformations caused him a great deal of pain each month and made it nearly impossible for him to ever become a fully trained wizard. For a long time the boy couldn't understand why people looked at him in disgust or pity or fear when they found out what he was. But the boy was strong and learned to live with the way people treated him. He learned to live with the fact that his Muggle father left him and his mother, on the boys' 8th birthday because he couldn't live with his sons' condition. He even learned to live with his stepfather who wasn't afraid to show, in very violent ways, just how much he hated him, as long as the boys' mother never found out. He was forced to grow up faster than most children and this helped him to become stronger, almost unbreakable. _Almost_.

The only person who had ever truly loved him was his mother and she was rarely around anymore. She was usually away on business, trying to support their family. She works for The Ministry of Magic in The International Magical Cooperation Department. 

His stepfather was an unemployed, drunk, who only pretended to like the boy when his wife was around. When she wasn't around, things tended to get ugly. The boys' stepfather often got abusive, mostly verbally, but sometimes physically, and when the boys' mother came back, she would assume that any bruises her son had were from his transformations and the boy never said otherwise. He supposed he could tell her, but then she would leave her husband and they would start over again and the last thing the boy wanted to do was cause his mother to lose more people she loved because of him. He hated feeling like he was a burden to her, so he kept his mouth shut about his problems and just tried to make it through each day alone.

As for friends, the boy didn't have any. Most of the children around his age were witches and wizards and the boy was scared to death that someone would find out about his 'abnormality', as his stepfather put it. Muggles were less likely to find out about his secret and it would have been easier to be friends with them, but he lived in a mainly wizarding community.

And so, the boy kept to himself and more often than not, the boy was found with his nose buried in a book. It wasn't that he especially liked reading, not that he had anything against, but he found that it was an easy way to keep people from getting to close to him. Even though the boy learned a lot from the time he spent reading and studying, he longed for something more. He found that, no matter what he did, he could not quash his need for adventure. It was like a fire that burned inside him and it could never be put out.

The only the boy ever wanted was to have some real friends who wouldn't judge him because of his condition. Friends who he could trust and who would trust him. Friends who were not afraid to get in a little trouble, because no matter what the boy made people believe, trouble was what he craved. He didn't understand it, trouble was bad, right? But that was what he wanted. He wanted to live dangerously, for once, and not have to care about the consequences. Unfortunately, he would probably never get the chance at having true friends or living dangerously. 

No headmaster or headmistress in their right mind would allow him to come to their school, knowing what he was, so there was no chance that he would ever become a fully trained wizard. The boy always dreamed to attend Hogwarts, his father talked about it so excitedly, but when the werewolf bit him, all his dreams were squashed.

"Remus Lupin! Get down her right now!" '**Uh-oh'** Remus thought. He recognized the voice as his stepfathers. Remus slowly rose from his bed and trotted down the stairs to where his stepfather stood, holding a letter in his hand. "Do you know what this is boy?" his stepfather demanded.

"No, sir." Remus answered solemnly.

"It's a letter," his stepfather paused for a moment and then smiled in a twisted sort of way and continued, "from Hogwarts." Remus felt his jaw drop. '**It couldn't be, could it?' **"Congratulations, son!" He grabbed Remus in a bone-crushing hug, the first Remus had ever received from his stepfather. "You're going to Hogwarts!" Remus wasn't sure if his stepfather was happy because Remus would become a wizard after all or if he was happy to have his stepson gone, but it didn't really matter. All that mattered was that Remus would finally have his dreams come true.

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Somewhere, not too far away… a tall, but somewhat athletic looking boy wandered through the halls of his so-called 'home'. This boy lived in a mansion that was unusually cold and lacked what was needed most in a home. Love. He lived with his mother and father and though he loved them both dearly, he rarely got the chance to see them. His parents were usually away on business or at the least busy in their home offices. He also had a younger sister, Octavia, but she was spoiled rotten and the boy couldn't stand to be around her for more than 5 minutes and that was on a good day.

**'People think money can solve _all_ their problems,'** the boy thought, '**but they're wrong. They don't know what it's like to have to spend all your time with rich snobs. They don't know what it's like to have your parents say they love you one minute and then the next have them gone. "We have to work hard to keep this life" They say, "isn't that what you want?" They don't understand how much I hate living in what should be declared a museum, where everything has to be in its place including me. They just don't understand.' **

The truth was, this boy was lonely. Most of the time he didn't have his parents to talk to and he blatantly refused to talk to Octavia. The only other people around the house were the servants and they were little more than robots, except for James of course, but he was much older and wasn't exactly what an 11-year old boy considered an ideal best friend. He did have a dog, but he didn't provide many intelligent conversations. Outside the manor, he was forced to mingle with rich snobs who he hated. 

There was one person that he had grown close to over the years, his cousin, Bianca. Unfortunately, she started at a new, far away, boarding school this past year. She was now home for the summer, but she'd be returning to school in the fall and the boy would be on his own again. Still, it was good to have her home, even if it was just for the summer. She hadn't changed much over the year, she grew a little bit maybe, but other than that she was still the same old Bianca. The only weird thing was that she flat out refused to talk about her school. The first time the boy asked about it, she told him, rather rudely, that it was none of his business.

The boy was so lost in his thoughts that he _almost_ missed the large snowy owl perched on the windowsill. '**What would owl be doing _here_?'** The boy thought. '**And what is…is that…is that a letter?'** The boy looked at the owl in awe. '**Since when do owls carry letter?' **The boy moved closer to take a look.

"Hey Sirius! What are you doing?" Sirius jumped, startled by this unwelcome interruption.

"Octavia leave! NOW!" Ignoring him, Octavia went on.

"Why did you bring that _thing_ in here?" Sirius spun around.

"Are you deaf? Leave…me…ALONE!" Sirius roared, but his sister didn't budge.

"I should tell Mum and dad that you brought a filthy little owl inside!" she threatened.

"They're in Paris, you little git, they're not going to be back until tomorrow night!"

"Fine! Then I'll just tell James!" Sirius let out a frustrated sigh and turned back to the owl. If James found out there was an owl in the house, there would be hell to pay. Sirius decided he simply could not allow that to happen. He was going to try to shoo the owl away, but first, he wanted, no needed to have a look at that letter He stuck out his hand to grab it from the owl but before he could reach it… "JAMES!" Octavia screamed at the top of her lungs. "SIRIUS BROUGHT AN OWL INTO THE HOUSE!" James probably hadn't heard her, it was a big house, but the owl had and it was not pleased. It had apparently, in Sirius' opinion at least been driven a bit mad by the high pitched, mirror breaking screams and was now out for revenge. It took flight and started diving straight for Sirius' head.

"ACK!" Sirius yelled as he quickly ducked out of the way as the owl missed him by a mere few inches. "MAD OWL! MAD OWL! HELP!" he wailed. The bird had begun to chase after Octavia, who ran straight into an open broom closet and shut the door, screaming all the while. The owl turned around and came towards Sirius again. "OH SSSHIIII…" The owl flew faster and faster as it came towards Sirius. Sirius backed up, but the owl was only inches away and before he knew the owl had slammed into his head, knocking him off balance and sending him flying backwards. The owl wasn't done yet, though. It came back around and hovered over Sirius, who was now lying flat on the ground. The crazed bird looked as though it was getting ready to dive again. "OH NO!" Sirius cried as he covered his head with his arms and squeezed his eyes shut as he prepared for the blow, but it never came. After a minute, Sirius slowly pulled his arms away from his head and opened one eye, just in time to see the owl…

SPLAT!

…let go right on his head.

"EEEEWWWW!" Sirius spit. "Dumb bird!" The owl landed next to him on the floor and hooted gently, noticeably calmer. Sirius sat up and wiped the owl dung off his face onto his shirt. He turned to look at the bird and asked, "What the hell did I ever do to you?" The hooted again, more forcefully this time. "Is it my fault that I have a loudmouth for a sister?" Then Sirius remembered the letter. "Can I see the letter now, please?" The owl made no sound and Sirius took this as a yes, so he carefully pulled the letter away from it. He examined it closely. "Hmmm…well it's addressed to me so I guess I can open it, right?" He looked at the owl for reassurance. It hooted excitedly. "My thoughts exactly!" He ripped the letter open excitedly and read it. "A wizard?" He raised an eyebrow. "Wizards aren't real. Are they?" he asked the owl.

"No! What nonsense!" came a voice from above. Sirius looked up and saw an older man in what appeared to be a cheap tux staring down at him.

"Hi James." Sirius said, grinning toothily.

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Somewhere else… there's a boy who is somewhat shorter than the previous two. He sat in his cramped room (it was cramped because he had to share it with his 5 year old brother who seemed to have a never ending pile of toys) staring out the window. He was wondering why he hadn't received his Hogwarts letter yet. He was almost positive that he was a wizard. He had always been able to do a little bit of magic when he really wanted to and he could fly, rather well actually. Yet the end of summer was approaching and he still hadn't received the letter.

**'What if it doesn't come?'** The boy thought, '**What if I'm not a wizard at all? What if being able to fly is just a fluke? Mum and dad would be so disappointed.'** His parents loved him, the boy knew that much, but it's been their dream for their son to follow in their footsteps. The boy knew they would tell him that it didn't matter if he turned out to be a squib, he knew better. They would be crushed. As you can see, the letter was very important, that's why he was worrying himself sick over it.

The stood and began to pace around. '**This is stupid!'** The boy stopped pacing and plopped down on his bed. '**I'm going to give myself a heart attack if I keep this up!'** He got onto his feet again and walked to the window and opened it up, just in time for a large owl, who would have otherwise flown straight into the window, to swoop in and almost knock the boy over.

"What the…" spoke a voice from the doorway. It was the boys' father. "James! You got an owl!"

"Yeah, I noticed." Said James who was slightly shocked at almost being pummeled by the out of control owl. He walked over to the owl and grabbed the letter from it.

"Well, what does it say?" his father said anxiously. James looked at his father, smiled and said.

"I don't know I haven't opened it yet." James ripped the letter open, read it and the smile faded from his face.

"Well?" his father asked carefully.

"I-I-I…I'm…" James looked up and his smile reappeared, "going to Hogwarts!"

"Really?!"

"Yeah!"

"I knew you would, son!" He grabbed his son in a big bear hug and when he let go they danced around the room for a minute until James' mother interrupted them.

"Is this some kind of male ritual dance or something?" she asked. James' father took her into his arms and spun her around.

"James made it into Hogwarts!" his father told her, "He's going to Hogwarts!"

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Elsewhere… a young girl, no older than eleven, sat on the floor with her older sister, watching T.V.. She lived in a small flat just outside of London with her parents and sister, Petunia. Their lives were pretty boring, at least in the girls' opinion. Nothing interesting seemed to happen to them, in fact, their lives were kind of predictable. She could tell that the rest of her family, especially her sister, liked it like that. She supposed that it made them feel secure and she could understand that, but didn't they ever like being surprised? The girl liked the rush that unpredictability gave her, it was kind of like being on a roller coaster.

She wasn't even watching the T.V. anymore, she was too lost in her thoughts. That's when she heard Petunia scream.

"LILY! THERE'S AN OWL IN THE HOUSE! I THINK IT'S GOING TO ATTACK ME! HELP! MUM! DADDY!" She was just sitting there with a look of horror on her face. Lily looked at her confused for a moment, and then followed her gaze and sure enough there was an owl perched on top of the television set. Their mother walked into the room and began to scold her daughter for making such a racket.

"Petunia! What are you screaming about?! You're going to…" Her voice died in her throat when she saw what her daughter went into such a fit about. "How did it get in here!" she demanded.

"It flew in through the window!" Petunia pointed towards the window in question.

"Well…"

"Mum!" Lily interrupted, "Look! It's carrying a letter!"

"Oh don't be ridiculous, Lily, owls don't…"

"But Mum," Petunia protested, "It does have a letter! Look!" 

"Honestly! Where would an owl get a…" But she was again silenced when she saw that the owl was indeed carrying a letter. Lily stood up and moved to get the letter and Petunia followed. "Lily stay back! It could have rabies or something!" Lily could tell that her mother was upset, so she complied. She turned to Petunia and whispered to her.

"Do owls get rabies?"

"I don't think so," Petunia responded in a whisper, "but Mum's a little crazed right now, so don't argue." Lily nodded. They watched their mother carefully as she began to pace back and forth through the room. Lily was getting tired of this, she was going to see that letter!

"I don't think it's going to hurt us, Mum. I could probably just…"

"Lily, what if you make it mad? Hmm? Then what would you do? And what if that is a private letter? What about the person who it's supposed to go to?"

"What if it's for us?" Lily reasoned.

"Who, exactly, would send us mail by owl?"

"Who would send anyone mail through an owl?" Petunia stated. Their mother stopped pacing and looked at the owl for a moment. Lily could tell that this had sparked her mothers' curiosity. She was starting to give in.

"Okay. I'll get the letter. You girls stay back!" She walked slowly toward the owl. '**Great!'** Lily thought sarcastically. '**At the rate she's going, we'll never find out!'** Her mother did finally make it to where the owl still sat, looking at the whole family as if they were nutters. Her mother reached, painstakingly, out to grab the letter. She pulled the letter away quickly and backed away. She breathed a sigh of relief when the owl finally flew away. She looked at the letter and her brow furrowed as she saw the address. "Lily," she said slowly, "It's for you." She handed her daughter the envelope.

"But…but…how…who?" Lily sputtered, but she couldn't get an actual sentence out. She gave up and tore the letter open and read it.

"Who's it from?" Petunia asked in a small voice.

"It's from a school. It says Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

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Meanwhile… a tall girl of about 10 or 11 years of age ran out of her house and collapsed on a bench in her 'backyard'. She lived in tiny little cabin, placed, rather inconveniently, in the middle of a forest. It was built in a small clearing and her so-called 'backyard' was just a little piece of that land that had been left over after the cabin was built.

Her parents had died a couple years back and so she had to live with her grandmother. Her grandmother liked the privacy that the cabin offered, but this girl hated it. She missed civilization. She missed being able to go where she wanted, when she wanted to go. Now when she needed to go somewhere, she had to be apparated outside of the woods so that she could walk to her destination without getting lost.

That was only one of the problem she had with living here. Another was her grandmothers' attitude. She was constantly running away into the woods just to get away from her grandmothers' nagging. She was always telling her granddaughter that if she wanted to get into Hogwarts, she had to start practicing and studying now or she would never get in. The girl had been lectured so much about it that she half hoped she wouldn't get into Hogwarts so her grandmother might shut up about it for a while. She knew that wasn't really what she wanted, in fact, quite the opposite was true. At least at Hogwarts she wouldn't be so isolated and she would learn about magic. That was really important to her. She just needed magic to be fun, her grandmother seemed to want anything but fun for her. That was why she was out here now. She had had a fight with her grandmother and she needed to get away for a while.

"Cassandra Lynn Miller! Just what do you think you're doing out here? It's getting dark and it isn't safe to be out in these woods at night, you should know that by now!"

"I know Gram. I just needed to think for a bit." Cassandra said as she stared up at the sky. Her grandmother sighed heavily and sat down next to her. Her grandmother seemed to be ready to give her yet another lecture but when she looked at her granddaughters face she changed her mind.

"Child, I know I'm hard on you sometimes. All I want is for you to do your best and get as far as you can in life. I don't want you to waste your talents."

"I know." Cassandra said. She knew exactly what her grandmother meant. She was talking about her rare talent. She was talking about the fact that Cassandra was a real Seer. She wasn't really a full-blown Seer. She couldn't call upon a vision just by looking in a crystal ball or at tealeaves or anything like that. In fact, her visions were few and far between. They only happened when something seriously bad was going to happen. Her grandmother wanted her to learn more about Divination, but Cassandra just didn't want to. She didn't like her visions, they usually scared her half to death, why would she want to See more?

"Cassandra," her grandmothers' voice called her back into reality, "we'd better go back in now."

"Okay." She stood and helped her grandmother to her feet and they walked into the cabin together.

When they stepped inside, they were greeted by a tiny owl, small enough to fit into a person's palm sitting on the kitchen table with a letter attached. Cassandra smiled and looked at her grandmother.

"Do you think that could be my Hogwarts letter?!"

"I don't know you have to look first, then you can decide." Her grandmother grinned. Cassandra sprinted to where to owl sat and stroked it's head as she pulled the letter off. She ripped it open and stared for a moment.

"I'm going Hogwarts!" she cried. "I'm going to Hogwarts! I'm going Hogwarts!" she repeated that for the rest of the night and she could barely fall asleep because it had given her a boost of energy. She was so happy! She was finally going to Hogwarts!"

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In another part of the world… a petite, but intimidating, young girl sat in a hotel lobby, just staring off into space. She was traveling with her parents, as usual. Their actual house is in London, but they were hardly ever there. Her parents often went on business trips all around the world and unless she was in boarding school at the time they went, they dragged her along too. 

Actually, they were her adoptive parents. Her real mother died shortly after giving birth to her and her father left her in an orphanage when he decided he couldn't take care of her anymore and she never heard from him again. She often wondered what her life would be like if her mother had survived and her father had stuck around. Would she be happier? She loved her adoptive parents, but she couldn't help wonder if she would have had a better life.

She didn't have anyone to talk to about these thoughts. She obviously couldn't tell her parents and she had no other family. She didn't have any close friends to talk to. When she traveled she didn't have enough time for friends and when she was in boarding school she kept her friends at a distance. They never felt like real friends to her, just people she hung out with so she wouldn't be alone all year. She kept her feelings a secret from everyone, for a lack of people she could tell her feelings to.

But there was another bit of information she hid from people. She had found out years ago that her mother had been a witch. She wasn't supposed to know this, but the girl always found a way to charm this kind of information out of people, a trait she learned from her adoptive mother. Her adoptive parents didn't know that she knew about her mother or magic at all really . They also didn't know that she knew that they weren't Muggles. They really didn't give her enough credit. She was raised as a Muggle, but her adoptive parents were forgetful and sometimes they left a copy of The Daily Prophet or a wand or a wizard photo lying around and the girl would find it and soon enough she put two and two together. She did a little investigating (she had found a girl from a family of witches and wizards at her old boarding school in France and asked the girl to tell her all about magic) and she now knew all about the schools that taught magic and about spells and magical creature and all of that. Now that she knew about all of this, she was desperately hoping she would turn out to be a witch. There was definitely a chance. After all her mother was a witch, so why shouldn't she be? Then again she knew her real father was a Muggle. 

**'Now I know why Muggles aren't told about magic,'** the girl thought sullenly, '**if they knew they would all want to learn how to use it, but they wouldn't be able to. Wanting something you can't have is really pitiful.'** It was like someone was dangling a carrot just out of reach in front of a starved horse. It just wasn't fair!

"Pardon me miss," the girl looked up and standing front of her was an elderly woman, dressed in a formal dress and fur coat. She had about a million diamonds sparkling everywhere and a wig that could never pass for actual hair. "Do you know where I could find a bathroom?"

"Yes, I believe there's one down that…"

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" the old woman shrieked as an owl swooped down above the woman's head. It was flying towards the girl, but it got caught in the woman's wig and pulled off it her head, causing the woman to scream again. The owl landed on the arm of the chair that the girl was sitting in. The girl spotted a letter, addressed to her no less, that the owl was carrying and quickly took it and stuffed it in her pocket before anyone noticed that it was there. She rose to her feet and looked up to see a short, bald man in a suit come storming towards where the girl, the old woman, and now one of the bellboys were standing. When he got to the wig woman he stopped and grabbed her shoulder and held it for a second reassuringly, then he dropped, obviously hoping no one had seen, but the girl had caught that.

"Are you okay Ell-Mrs. Peterson?" he asked softly, looking into her eyes.

"Yes, I think so." She replied, not dropping his gaze. They stood there like that for a while before the girl cleared her throat, bringing them out of their trance. Then the bald man turned to the bellboy

"How did this _creature_ get in here!" the bald man demanded. The bellboy began to stutter in fear.

"W-w-wel-well, s-si-sir, I-I opened the d-d-door and i-i-it just f-f-fle-flew in!"

"Well, get it out of here!" he ordered.

"Yes, sir." Said the bellboy who seemed to have gained a little composure. He walked towards the owl slowly reaching his hands to grab it, but it took flight and the bellboy chased after it. The bald man turned back the girl and the woman (who was desperately trying to put her wig back on the right way, but failing miserably).

"Do you know where that owl came from?!" The man asked, accusingly. It seemed to be directed at the girl.

"I reckon it came from outside, sir." She answered innocently.

"That is not what I meant!"

"Then. Be. More. Specific." She pronounced every word carefully.

"Very well then! You know that pets aren't allowed in this hotel and…" she cut him off.

"Pets? You think that owl was my pet? Who would keep an owl as a pet?"

"Obviously you! It was heading straight for you!"

"Actually, it seemed like it was heading towards this woman." The girl pointed to the woman in fur.

"Well! I never!" the woman protested. The manager jumped to her defence.

"Young lady, I have known Mrs. Peterson for years and I know for a fact that…" '**Geez this guy is irritating! Must be the manager. Aaawww! Isn't that just ssssooooo cute!' ** She thought sarcastically. '**He's sticking up for her. Who do they think they're kidding? They're obviously a little _friendlier_ than he says.'** The girl stopped for a moment. '**But he said '_Mrs_. Peterson'. She's married! Oh wow! What would happen if someone found out? I could just hear what people would say 'Hotel Manger by Day, Gigelow for Elderly Married Women by Night'** The girl smiled to herself. "Do you find this funny?" The man demanded, bringing her out of her thoughts.

"No, sir." She smiled at him with false innocence. "Maybe her husband owns an owl and sent it to find her." The manager looked taken aback. "Maybe we should call him up and find out." She watched as they both paled and then she turned to the woman. "Unless…he doesn't know you're here." They're eyes nearly popped out of their heads at this tiny girls audacity.

"Is there a Ms. Angela Pierce here?" asked a young man who had come up from behind the manager, causing him to jump a little.

"That would be me." The girl replied sweetly. He smiled at her.

"Your parents want you to come to your room, immediately."

"Okay, thank you." She turned to the manager and the woman. "I'd better get going. I'm sure you to can settle this on your own." She turned and walked away trying desperately not to laugh. People thought that because she was only 11 years old, she didn't know what went on in the world, but she did and she wouldn't hesitate to call people on their bullshit. 

Remembering the letter in her pocket, she stopped just outside the door to her hotel room. She pulled it out and it stared at it for a moment. '**Well, it's addressed to me. Could be it be…? Oh please let it be!'** She ripped it open and quickly read it.

"YES!" She threw her hands up in the air and began to dance around the hallway. '**I'm going to Hogwarts! I'm gonna be a witch!'** She chanted in her head. Her hotel room door and an older man stuck his head out to see what the commotion was all about.

"Angela! What's this all about?" She handed him the letter and continued to dance around. He read the letter and his jaw nearly dropped to the floor in shock. Angela jumped in front of him and held her hands high in the air.

"I'm a witch!" she exclaimed.

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A/N: I know this chapter was long but thank you for bearing with me. Anyway, *yawns* I'm tired, I'm going to take a nap. See ya next time!

A&F

Ebony Ice


	2. King's Cross Station

YaY! The second chapter has arrived! I hope you like, I had fun writing it. Still kind of setting things up, but we're getting there! I'd also like to say thank you to Tasty_Lemon for reviewing the last chapter. Much appreciated. BTW, when writing is bold it means that some one is thinking.

Disclaimer: Come on, you know what's mine and what's not

The Whole Story by Ebony_Ice 

CHAPTER 2- King's Cross Station 

Sirius stood in front of the barrier between platform nine and platform ten. **There must be some mistake,** he thought, perplexed. **My ticket says to take the train from platform nine and three-quarters.** He looked around. **But there is no platform! I knew this was a trick! There are no wizards! No Hogwarts!** Sirius paused for a moment. **But there has to be! I'll find someway there, I don't care how!**

"Excuse me." Sirius turned his head and saw a gangly sort of boy staring at him. "You're kind of in my way," the boy said timidly.

"In your way? But there's nothing here," Sirius responded, pointing back at the barrier. The boy observed Sirius for a moment and then spoke again.

"Do you know about the _other_ platform?"

"Do you mean…" Sirius stopped and looked around then leaned in and whispered to the other boy, "do you mean platform nine and three quarters?" The other boy nodded. "I-I don't know how to get on it," Sirius admitted.

"Oooohh. Are you from a Muggle family?" The other boy asked with a bit more confidence. 

"A Muggle family?" Sirius asked curiously.

"Never mind. To get on to the platform, all you have to do is walk towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten."

"I have to walk into the barrier!" Sirius exclaimed incredulously. "But I'll…"

"You won't hit it, it's magic; it'll take you right to the platform. You might want to run at it though; it'll be easier," Sirius looked at the barrier then looked back at the boy.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," the boy said firmly. "I'm Remus Lupin, by the way." Remus stuck his hand out to the other boy. Sirius absentmindedly took it and shook it.

"Sirius Black." He looked back at the barrier. "Here goes nothing." He backed up a bit and then started to run towards the barrier. He closed his eyes and waited for the crash into the barrier, but to his surprise, he never hit it. In fact, he went right through! When he opened his eyes he saw a huge scarlet steam engine and a sign overhead that said "Hogwarts Express". **Wow! This is…this is amazing!**

"I told you." Sirius whipped around and saw the Remus boy smiling at him. Sirius smiled back.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome." Remus paused hesitantly, the smile fading from his face. "If you want to, you can sit with me on the train."

"Sure!"

"Great!" Remus beamed. "Why don't we..." Remus was interrupted by a new voice

"Sirius?" Sirius spun around and felt his jaw drop.

"Bianca?" She grinned and nodded. "What are you doing here?"

"I go to Hogwarts!"

"Really?!"

"Yes!" She swiftly grabbed him in a hug, but he pulled away.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked, slightly wounded.

"Because I thought you were a Muggle! I wasn't supposed to tell you."

"When did that ever stop you? And what is a Muggle?"

"A Muggle is a non-magical person." Bianca looked over Sirius' shoulder and saw the other boy standing there awkwardly. "Who's that?" Sirius spun around.

"That's Remus Lupin, he showed me how to get on the platform. Remus, this is my cousin, Bianca Black."

"Hi." Remus said quietly. Bianca smiled at him.

"Hello." They stood there for a moment, not knowing what to say. Sirius was the first to break the silence.

"Remus, why don't you go get us a compartment. I'll come find you in a minute.

"Okay." Remus then rolled his trunk towards the train.

"I had better get going, my friends are waiting." Bianca said once Remus had gone and began to walk away. "I'll see you later."

"Bye." Sirius watched her walk away. **This is turning out to be great!** Sirius thought. **I made it through the barrier alive, I'll see my cousin all the time, and I've already made a new friend! This is…** That's where Sirius stopped all rational thought, because at that moment, he swore he saw an angel. **Wow! Who's that?** Sirius wondered. Only fifty feet in front of him was the most beautiful girl Sirius had ever seen. The girl had long, blonde hair and big, sparkling hazel eyes. She was talking excitedly with two adults, probably her parents. **She's…amazing!** Sirius didn't know how long he had been standing there. He would have been happy to stay there forever as long as she never moved, but fate wasn't going to let that happen. He was in his own world and didn't notice anything that was going on around him. If he had been more alert, he might have seen the out of control cart heading straight for him before it was too late, but he didn't.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

**Fantastic! **Angela thought sarcastically as she searched the platform. **'I must have broken some kind of record! I lost my parents in less than five minutes! Unbelievable!** She had left her parents to get a cart for her trunk and when she came back, they were gone and they had taken her trunk with them so she couldn't even board the train.

"Angela! There you are! We've been looking all over for you!" Angela recognized the voice as her father's. She spun around ready to scold them.

"_You_ were looking all over for _me_? Don't you think you have that a little backwards?" Angela stood with her hands on her hips, trying to look intimidating. Her father put her trunk onto the cart, while her mother began to put her in her place.

"Angie, honey, stop the angry parent act. We're the parents here and just so you know we _have_ been looking for you." Angela let out an angry sigh.

"You know I'm tired of being overthrown just because I'm younger. That's not fair! And don't call me Angie, I hate that!"

"_Angela_, life's not fair. You should enjoy your youth now, you'll miss it someday." Her mother replied.

"Maybe people who think like that make the world unfair." Angela reasoned. "And I'm tired of people telling me that when I get older 'I'll miss my youth'. If I don't like being young now and I'm not going to like being older later, when will I be happy with my age? Answer me that!" Her mother was about to reply but her father interrupted.

"I'm sure you'd both love for this argument to continue all day, but you have a train to board and we," he turned to his wife, "have a plane to catch."

"Fine. You should go. I can get on the train by myself." 

Angela felt a familiar wave of sadness wash over her. She felt it every time she had to leave her parents for a long period of time. Which was often. It made her want to cry. **Stop it!** Angela told herself. **You're going to see them soon enough! It's not like you've never left them before!** She thought for a moment. **That doesn't make it much better though.** Another part of her thought sadly.

"Are you sure? We can stay until your train leaves," her mother offered. She seemed to have softened a little now that she realized this was goodbye, maybe for the whole year.

"That's okay. I don't want you to miss your plane." Angela stepped towards her parents and gave her mother a hug.

"I'll miss you," her mother said when Angela pulled away.

"So will I," said her father as he pulled his daughter into a hug. When he released her she took a step back.

"I'll miss you guys too. Goodbye." Angela smiled at her parents.

"Goodbye. And don't forget to write to us. We want to hear how you're doing," her mother said, and Angela could see the tears in her eyes.

"Don't get into _too_ much trouble," her father told her. She nodded. "Bye sweetheart." He kissed her forehead.

"Bye." Angela smiled at them as they walked away. 

She decided to look around for a moment, she had never seen an entire crowd of witches and wizards before. It kind of excited her.  She was getting ready to board the train when something caught her eye. There was a boy, standing in the middle of the platform, staring off into space and drooling. It was as if he were in a trance. **What is he staring at?** Angela wondered. She followed his line of sight and saw that what he was ogling at, was a girl. She rolled her eyes. **Oh brother. **She looked back at the boy. **Does he realize how ridiculous he looks?** She looked back at the girl. **For heaven sakes, she's not even that pretty! Boys are stupid. **Angela thought for a minute and then grinned evilly. **What kind of person would I be if I let him stand there like that all day? **She wondered as her grin widened. **If I give him a little scare, that ought to wake him up a bit. I'll just roll my cart over there and _almost_ hit him, that ought to do the trick. I'll just pretend like it was an accident and he'll never know different. **She looked around to make sure no one was watching, then she began to roll her cart toward the boy, quickly gaining speed. Angela was just about to stop it when she hit something on the ground and lost control of the cart. She let go of the cart and watched as it barreled straight toward the boy in question. She winced as it crashed into the boy, knocking him off his feet. **That_ had _to hurt! **She ran to help the boy, who was now lying flat on his back.

"I am so sorry! I-I-I didn't mean to…the cart just got away from me and…" She paused and helped him to his feet. He winced and held his arm. "Are you okay?" **Oh my God! I can't believe I did that!**

"Well, for being bowled over by a runaway cart, I'd say I'm okay."

"I'm sorry." She said with guilt evident on her face. The boy sensed that she was really sorry and smiled at her reassuringly.

"It's okay. It wasn't your fault. I'm Sirius Black by the way."

"I'm so sorry. I…" Sirius grinned mischievously.

"Hello Ms. Sorry."

"What? Oh…I'm not Sorry, I mean I am sorry, but I'm not _Sorry_."

"Either you are or aren't."

"I'm not, but…" Sirius gave her a mock offended look. "I mean I am, but…" Sirius sniggered.

"It's okay, I understand. Let's try this again. Hi, my name is Sirius Black and you are…"

"Angela Pierce."

"See how easy that was. No need to panic." Angela smiled gratefully at him. They stood there for a minute until Angela broke the silence.

"Are you sure you're okay." Sirius laughed.

"Yes, I'm sure. We had better get on the train, it won't wait forever." Together they rolled their trunks toward the train.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Remus pulled his trunk into an empty compartment and sat down. He couldn't help feeling like he was on cloud nine. He had been half expecting no one to like him, but so far he had a potential friend, and he wouldn't be alone during the trip to Hogwarts. So far, things were going great.

Remus leaned against the window and watched the people pass by. He was pulled out of his reverie when he saw that boy, Sirius, the one he was supposed to sit with. He was staring at something far away. What was it? Remus looked around and saw what Sirius had been staring at. It was just a girl. He wondered who she was and why was Sirius so hypnotized by her? Remus looked back at Sirius, but he wasn't staring at the mystery girl anymore. He was now lying flat on the ground. It looked like he had been run over by a cart. A frantic girl, probably the owner of the runaway cart, ran to help him up.

"Excuse me," Remus turned his head and saw a boy with messy black hair standing in the compartment doorway. "May I sit with you? The most of the other compartments are completely filled or have evil Slytherins in them. Er…you're not a Slytherin, are you?"

"I hope not, but I haven't been sorted yet," Remus replied.

"Oh. Neither have I. James Potter." James extended his hand and Remus took it.

"Remus Lupin."

"Hi. So can I sit here?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Thanks." James pulled his trunk in and sat down across from Remus. "So…"

"Hello." Sirius walked in with the same girl who had run him over with the cart.

"Hi," Remus said. "Sirius, this is James Potter. James this is Sirius Black and…"

"An…" Angela began, but Sirius interrupted.

"This is Ms. Sorry." James raised an eyebrow at the girl, who had just smacked Sirius upside the head, apparently over the fear of harming Sirius. "Hehe…ow." Sirius rubbed his head. Angela turned back to James and Remus

"Hi, I'm Angela Pierce."

"Hi Angela." Remus greeted her politely.

"Hello Angel," James said teasingly. She looked at him for a moment and then spoke.

"Trust me, I'm no angel." Once again he raised an eyebrow at her. She turned to Remus. "What's your name?"

"Remus Lupin."

"Remus, can we sit with you and James?" She asked.

"Sure." He smiled and gestured for her to sit down.

"Thank you." She sat next to Remus and Sirius took the seat across from her, next to James. After awhile the train began to move and they were finally on their way! They talked, rather animatedly, about Hogwarts, mostly informing Sirius all about the houses, the classes and Quidditch. It was an…interesting trip.

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"And for heaven sakes, keep out of trouble! Are you listening to me Cassandra?"

"Yes, Gram." Cassandra had been standing beside the Hogwarts Express for ten minutes now, being lectured on what to do and what not to do when she got to Hogwarts. It was getting really tiresome.

"Don't give me that tone of voice, young lady. I don't want to get even one letter telling me that you were misbehaving." **Yeah? And I want to leave, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon either.** Cassandra thought, but said otherwise.

"Okay Gram, I'll _try_ to stay out of trouble."

"You had better do more than _try_, Cassandra," her grandmother warned.

"Gram, I would love to stay and chat, but I _do_ have a train to catch." 

Her grandmother sighed and wiped a stray hair out of Cassandra's face.

"Child, ever since you came into this world, all I wanted is what's best for you. I don't mean to upset you." 

Cassandra smiled. "I know, but I'm not a baby anymore. I can, to an extent, take care of myself."

"Okay, I know that, really I do. It's just hard to believe it sometimes." She paused. "You had better get onto the train before it leaves without you." 

She kissed her granddaughter on the forehead. "Thanks, Gram. I'll see you soon."

"Have a good term. I'll miss you." 

They hugged briefly and then Cassandra walked away. She would definitely miss her grandmother, no question about that, but she was also relieved to get away. Her grandmother wanted her to be something that she could never be, something she didn't even want to be. Perfect. She would never get top marks in all her classes. She would never be Head Girl or even a prefect. She would NEVER be able to keep out of trouble, not that she went looking for it, it just liked to follow her everywhere she went. She would always have her flaws and she was okay with that. Her grandmother, on the other hand, wouldn't stop pestering her until she was Minster of Magic or Headmistress of Hogwarts or some other high position. Cassandra understood that her grandmother wanted her to do well in life and she appreciated that, but she had no desire to have an important position like that; there was too much pressure and she usually folded under pressure. 

Cassandra stopped walking when she found a seemingly empty compartment and pulled her trunk into it. Once she and her trunk were safely inside she sat down and relaxed.

"Hello." 

Cassandra jumped a little and looked around. She saw a small, timid-looking boy sitting across from her.

"Oh. Hi. Sorry I barged in like that, I didn't realize anyone was here. Do you mind if I stay here?" Cassandra asked quickly.

"It's alright. You can stay." She smiled at the small boy. "I'm Peter Pettigrew." He stuck out his hand and she graciously accepted it.

"Cassandra Miller. Are you a first year too?" Peter nodded. "I hope…" Cassandra's voice died in her throat when she glanced out her window. She did a double take and couldn't believe what she saw. "Would you look at that…"

"What?" Peter asked curiously. Cassandra pointed out the window.

"A girl, around our age, just rammed right into a boy with her cart. She did it on purpose too, I saw it."

"I don't think she meant…" Peter started, but Cassandra held up a hand.

"I saw her. She was running straight for him." Cassandra and Peter watched as the girl helped the boy onto the train, a few compartments behind them. 

After that, they talked about which houses they wanted to be in (they both agreed that they did _not_ want to be placed in Slytherin) until a small, redheaded girl walked into their compartment, asking if she could stay.

"Sure," said Cassandra, "there's plenty of room, as you can see." She gestured to the empty seats.

"Thank you," the girl said politely and sat down next to Cassandra. "My name's Lily Evans."

"Peter Pettigrew."

"Cassandra Miller." 

They smiled at each other and then Lily spoke.

"Did you see that guy who got squashed by a runaway cart?"

"Yeah, but that's not exactly what happened. You see…" Peter rambled on about a mad cart driver and human road kill. He might have embellished slightly, but it definitely made for an interesting story, in Cassandra's opinion anyway. This boy seemed to have a flair for the dramatic.

**These two seem pretty safe. If I stick with them, maybe Gram won't have to get any of those letters after all. Maybe trouble won't be able to find me this year.** She thought hopefully.

Little did she know trouble was lurking just a few compartments behind her in the form of a mad cart driver, the human road kill, and their two new friends.

To be continued…

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A/N: So…what did you think? I know some people might think that Sirius is too young to be drooling over girls (as do I) but I'm the writer here and I'll will do with him as I please *grins evilly* Not like that you sicko!

A&F

Ebony Ice


	3. DogBoy and Angel Cake

Woohoo! 3rd chapter! Are you ready?! I'm not even sure if chapter 2 posted right, it didn't show up so I don't know. Oh well, we'll find out.

Oh, and another thing, I wasn't sure if wizards and witches wear regular clothes under their robes or not. I thought that they probably didn't because they didn't know how to dress in Muggle clothing (during the Quidditch World Cup), but then I could have sworn they did in the movie. Anyway, for this particular story we're going to say that they don't wear Muggle clothes. Don't ask. Read on, you'll see what I'm talking about.

Disclaimer: I trust that you're all smart enough to know what's mine and what's not.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice

CHAPTER 3 – Dog-Boy and Angel Cake

"Perhaps we shouldn't have given him the chocolate frogs." Angela suggested as she watched Sirius Black bounce in his seat. James and Remus had spent most of the train riding acquainting Sirius with the finer points of being a wizard. Needless to say Sirius got a little overexcited. 

"I've never seen a person bounce like that. It's…hypnotic." James said, as his head bounced up and down with Sirius, like a dog watching a ball bounce. Remus simply nodded as he too watched Sirius mesmerized. Sirius seemed not to hear a word of what was said.

Finally, James must have just got tired of watching the amazing bouncing boy because he suddenly pounced on Sirius, holding his shoulders down to stop him from further movement. This however deterred Sirius for only mere seconds and he slowly began bouncing once more, starting with his legs and moving gradually up his body. Soon James too began shaking as if Sirius' energy was being transferred to his body. Remus saw their dilemma and tried to help by attempting to grab Sirius' legs. If only he could catch them. Angela stared at them for a moment and then burst out laughing.

"Little help?" asked Remus, who was now somehow sprawled across Sirius' lap.

"No…you're…doing…doing fine." She said between giggles. James stood up in his seat and attempted to push down on Sirius' shoulders with all his weight. This unfortunately made Sirius yelp in pain and throw James and Remus of him and onto the floor, but Remus was still holding his legs so Sirius too was pulled roughly too the floor. This sight seemed just too much for Angela, she was laughing so hard that there were tears rolling down her eyes. Sirius seemed to notice his surrounding for the first time and said to Angela,

"Think that's funny do you, Angel Cake?"

"Angel Cake?" Angela asked and burst out laughing once more.

"That's it young lady, you're going to get it!" Sirius exclaimed in mock anger. Angela snorted as Sirius came at her dragging her to the floor with them and tickling her.

"Shall we?" James asked Remus.

"Yes, I think so." Remus replied with a grin and they joined Sirius.

"Noooo!" she howled. "Stop! No fair!"

"What in heavens name is going on in here?!" Everyone stopped and slowly looked toward the door.

"Hello Bianca." Sirius suddenly stood up. "What's going on?"

"I was wondering that myself." Bianca said looking over her cousin's shoulder to see Angela, James and Remus trying to untangle themselves. "But I can see this is a private thing, so I guess I'll be on my way."

"NO! I mean no, it's not a private thing. Honest." Sirius said innocently.

"Whatever it is I don't want to know." Sirius shrugged. Angela was behind his back mouthing 'help me!' Bianca smiled wryly. "Now I know you haven't been giving these good people an trouble, have you Dog-Boy?" Sirius paled.

"Dog-Boy?" Angela asked interestedly.

"Yeah, you know…Sirius…the dog star. Dog-Boy." Bianca said matter-of-factly. Angela, James and Remus snickered. 

"Um, shouldn't you be on your way now Bianca. You interrupted a private moment, remember?" Sirius said anxiously.

"Not that private. Why don't you join us?" James suggested.

"I'd love to really, but I have things to do, places to go people to see. You know, that whole bit." Sirius let out a sigh of relief. "I just came to tell you _Sirius_, " she pronounced his name pointedly, "that we're nearing Hogwarts and you might want to put you robes on." 

"Oh…ok. Thanks for stopping by." Sirius said trying to get rid of her before she said anything too damaging about him. He shuddered to think of all the blackmail material his cousin had on him.

"Sirius! Don't be rude." Angela grinned. She had a feeling she would get along well with this Bianca person. She turned to Bianca. "I'm Angela Pierce, by the way."

"Bianca Black, Sirius' cousin."

"I'm so sorry." Angela said jokingly.

"Hey!" Sirius protested, but no one paid attention.

"He's not that bad really." Smiling sweetly at her cousin. "He's just a little moody." Sirius pouted. Bianca turned to James. "Now I know Angela and Remus and of course Sirius, but I don't believe we've met." James held out his hand.

"James Potter." Bianca took his hand and shook it.

"Hi." Sirius gave her another dirty look. She rolled her eyes. "Don't get your knickers in a twist, cuz. I have to be going anyway. Nice meeting you all." She turned and walked out the door.

"I like her." Said Angela.

"Me too." James agreed. Sirius rolled his eyes. For once he was actually happy to see his cousin leave.

"Well," Remus said, clapping his hands together, "I suppose we should get dressed then." The boys looked suddenly at Angela, but she didn't make a move.

"Ummm…we can't exactly change with you in here Angela." James said blushing.

"Very observant James." Angela said sweetly. "I suppose you boys will just have to change in the hall." James and Sirius stared at her in amazement. Remus smiled a little.

"You can't be serious!" James protested.

"Again James, very observant. I'm not Sirius. Dog-boy over there is." She pointed to Sirius with her thumb.

"Like I've never heard that one before." Sirius scoffed.

"Yes, but it sounds so much better coming from me." Sirius got ready to retort but James spoke first.

"That's not the point…"

"There's a point to this conversation? Bloody hell! I missed that entirely." Angela interrupted. Remus and Sirius snorted.

"The point is" James said losing his patience, "that there are three of us and only one of you."

"I'm one of a kind. It's not my fault you're not." Angela said innocently. James deflated a bit.

"That's not what a meant…"

"Well you should be more specific then."

"I'm trying!" James shouted. He took a deep breath. "Now look, since you are the only girl, I think it's only fair that you be the one to leave."

"But why?" Angela said in mock confusion.

"Because there are three of us…" Angela cut him off.

"Yes, I got that part James, but you seem to have overlooked one thing."

"And that would be?" James crossed his arms over his chest. 

"That I am a lady and therefore you should treat me as such." Sirius snorted.

"Lady?" Sirius looked around. "I see no lady. Just a stubborn little girl."

"You really think you're funny, don't you Dog-Boy?" Sirius stepped closer to her.

"Think? I don't think. I know." Angela sighed sadly.

"How awful! To think there are really people out there that are as delusional as you." She tsked. "Oh! But you did get one part correct…you don't think." She smiled.

"I'm delusional, huh?" Angela nodded. "Well, at least I don't go crashing into innocent bystanders!"

"Well maybe if you hadn't been drooling like a lovesick puppy, you would have seen the cart coming and moved."

"I was not drooling!" Sirius protested. Remus who had been trying to stay out of the conversation laughed.

"Are you joking! You practically had a puddle at your feet!" Remus said.

"That's not true!" Sirius growled. Angela looked at him thoughtfully for a moment.

"You know, the name Dog-Boy does fit you rather well. I mean…you drool, you growl. I wonder…do you chase cars as well?" Sirius turned red. Whether it was from anger or embarrassment is hard to say.

"I…you…just…argh!" he stuttered and stormed out of the compartment.

"Temper, temper." Angela shook her head disapprovingly. "That boy cannot take a joke."

"Maybe someone should go after him. He's more than a little upset. He may do something…"

"Idiotic is the word I think you're searching for." Angela cut him off.

"What do you know?! You're just a stupid girl!" James shouted angrily and he too stomped out of the compartment.

"Uuummm," Remus said, "I think I should go after them." Angela nodded her head and Remus left the compartment. Angela smiled to herself. **So James, stupid girl am I? Well this stupid girl just cleared the compartment so she could change without an audience.**

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"That is so weird Lily! Your family must be so exciting!" Cassandra said.

"Not really. They're actually somewhat boring."

"It must run in the family." A drawling voice said. Lily, Cassandra and Peter turned to see four mean looking boys standing in the doorway.

"Who are you?" Lily asked.

"Who am I? _I _am Lucius Malfoy." The boy said proudly.

"Okay…" Lily said, unsure of what to think.

"I assume you have heard of my family, correct?"

"Sorry, I can't say that I have." Lucius' eyes narrowed and Lily swallowed nervously.

"She must be a mudblood." Lucius muttered to his companions who sniggered.

"Excuse me?" Cassandra jumped out of her seat angrily. Lucius sneered and was about to reply when yet another voice came form behind him and his lackeys.

"Hey! Who threw a party and forgot to invite me?" the owner of the voice elbowed his way through the crowd.

"Who are you?" Lucius demanded.

"Sirius Black." He replied as he plopped down into an empty seat.

"Well _Black_," Lucius spat, "we were having a personal conversation, so if you don't mind…"

"Sirius, where did you go?" James said as he pushed his way into the compartment with Remus not far behind.

"James! Remus! I do believe these fellows were having a party, yet for some reason we were not invited."

"Really? How odd." Remus looked around. "Doesn't look like much fun does it?"

"No it doesn't." James agreed. "I think these gentlemen are spoiling the fun." Lucius got ready to retort, but was once again interrupted.

"Guys, you can come back to the compartment now. I'm finished."

"Angela!" Sirius said cheerfully, momentarily forgetting his anger at her. "We were just having a little get together." Angela glanced around the room.

"Who invited these buggers?" She asked, staring disgustedly at one of the boys with particularly greasy hair.

"We were wondering that as well." Sirius said, standing up suddenly.

"Maybe a little disinvite would be in order." James suggested.

"Yes, I think so." Remus agreed. Together, Angela, Sirius James and Remus pushed Lucius and his gang out of the compartment before they could protest. They closed the door and immediately burst out laughing.

"Ahem," Angela said as soon as she had caught her breath, "as I was saying, you boys can come back now. I'm all done."

"And just what makes you think we want to come back?" Sirius asked, suddenly remembering why he left in the first place.

"Yeah!" James added. Angela just rolled her eyes.

"Perhaps it's because all of your things are in the compartment and you really should change into your robes."

"What about you? You can't come with us you know." James said. Angela snorted.

"Oh pretty please! I so want to come watch you boys change!" Angela begged mockingly.

"We know you do Angel Cake." Sirius replied. Angela's eyes narrowed and she retorted, initiating an all out insult war between the two.

"Excuse me!" Cassandra said breaking through Sirius and Angela's banter. "Not to be rude, but who are all you people?"

"Oh…sorry. My name is Angela and this is Remus, James and Dog-Boy." She said as she pointed to each person. 

"Sirius, my name is Sirius!" he growled.

"If you want me to stop calling you Dog-Boy, perhaps you shouldn't growl so much. It's just too tempting." Angela turned back to Lily, Cassandra and Peter. "And you are?"

"I'm Cassandra. This is Lily and Peter." Everyone said hi and stood in an awkward silence for a moment.

"I'm sorry for barging in like that," Sirius said breaking the silence, "I heard that kid talking and decided to have a little fun." Sirius smiled sheepishly.

"Well, we really should be thanking you. We weren't sure just how to get rid of them anyway. You did us a favor." Lily said gratefully.

"I don't mean to break up this touching moment, but we really do have to change." Remus said.

"I have an idea! Peter…that is your name isn't it?" Peter nodded and Angela continued, "Why don't you go with them back to our compartment to change. Lily, Cassandra and I will stay here. That will solve the boys vs. girls, who gets to change in the compartment debate. When you guys finish come back here. Sound good?" Everyone nodded and Angela smiled, proud of her cleverness.

This was just the beginning of friendships that would be put through years of tests and trials.

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A/N: So…what do you think? Good? Bad? Odd? Let me know! Reviews motivate me just remember that! The next chapter may take just a bit longer to get posted than these first three because I already had these written, I just had to type and revise them. It shouldn't take too long though. Until next time…

Ebony Ice


	4. A Slytherin!

A/N: 4th Chapter! What more can I say? This chapter didn't take as long as I thought because…well…it's really short. Anyway, read on! Please review!

Disclaimer: Some of it's mine some of it's not. There you go.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice

CHAPTER 4 – A Slytherin!

Soon after everyone had finished putting on their robes, the Hogwarts Express arrived at its destination. The new friends clamored off the train together and were called toward a large, friendly sort of man holding a lantern.

"That must be Hagrid, the gamekeeper. My mum told me about him." James whispered.

"He's not…well…dangerous, is he?" Peter asked, obviously a little frightened by the man who towered many feet over the small first years.

"No, not at all. Friendly as they come actually. His size does make him seem a bit threatening though, doesn't it?" Peter nodded vigorously as they followed Hagrid down the narrow, steep path. A strange, apprehensive sort of silence fell over the group. No one dared speak. It seemed that they were expecting something horrible to happen. However, all their fears were forgotten as the path opened up. There was a collective gasp heard from the group as they caught sight of the humungous castle that lay before them.

"Four to a boat! Everyone in!" Hagrid ordered. Everyone climbed into the small boats and waited. Hagrid checked to make sure that no one was left behind and then cried "FORWARD!" The boats began to move across the sparkling lake, toward the grand castle.

"Have you ever seen anything like it?" Sirius asked in amazement. Angela, Lily and James, who were all in the same boat, could only shake their heads while gazing up at their beautiful new school.

In the next boat were Cassandra, Peter, Remus and another boy they didn't know.

"I heard there's a forest by Hogwarts that has unicorns and werewolves." The unknown boy said energetically. Remus' head whipped toward the boy.

"Werewolves?" Remus asked nervously. The boy nodded gravely.

"That's not true!" Cassandra protested. She could see that Remus was obviously frightened by the thought of werewolves and was eager to ease her new friends worry.

"Yes it is! My uncle told me all about it. He says there's all sorts of nasty things in there!" The boy argued.

"Shows how much he knows." Cassandra scoffed. "Werewolves only turn into wolves one night a month. There cannot possibly be werewolves in the forest all the time as people who turn into werewolves would change back into humans after the full moon. Surely they wouldn't stay in such a dangerous forest as humans and it would be rather noticeable if a load of people just showed up every month to get into the forest during the full moon. It's just a story people tell little witches and wizards to scare them." Cassandra finished with a look of utter superiority, thinking that she had made her case so well that no one could refute it.

"You're wrong." The boy said shaking his head dramatically. "The forest does something to them. It makes them stay wolves forever." Remus gulped.

"Well then they wouldn't be werewolves would they? Just regular old wolves." Cassandra said huffily. Remus was very grateful when they reached the other side of the lake and the conversation was cut off.

"Everyone duck!" Hagrid shouted as they floated through a tunnel in the cliff and came to a stop in an underground harbor. Everyone climbed out of the boats and followed Hagrid through a passageway leading to the outside of the castle.

"All right there, Remus?" Sirius asked clamping his hand on Remus' shoulder. "You look a bit ill." Remus nodded, but didn't speak. "Don't like boats, eh?" Remus nodded again, satisfying Sirius' curiosity, but Angela, who had been watchin Remus' face, suspected there was something more than bothering him. She looked at him warily but asked no questions.

They started up the stone stairway to Hogwarts front entrance. Hagrid knocked three times and the doors swung open. Waiting for them was a stern looking witch with her hair pulled back in a tight bun. She seemed very strict and by no means a woman to cross. Hagrid introduced her as Professor McGonagall, who in turn, excused Hagrid and led the first years through the entrance hall and into a small chamber off of the hall.

"Welcome to Hogwarts." She greeted them. She then proceeded to tell them about the banquet and the sorting. "You will wait here until we are ready to sort you. Wait quietly, I'll come retrieve you when it is time."

"So…does anyone know how we are sorted?" Lily asked when McGonagall had gone. The boy from the boat spoke first.

"My uncle told me that there would be a test and we would be sorted according to our scores."

"Well your uncle just knows everything doesn't he?" Cassandra said sarcastically.

"He knows more than you, I expect." Cassandra was about to retort, but McGonagall interrupted.

"Everyone quiet! Form a line and follow me." They did as they were told and were led into the Great Hall.

"Look at the ceiling!" gasped one girl.

"There is none!" A boy exclaimed

"My uncle told me it was charmed to look like the sky." Cassandra rolled her eyes.

"Yeah? My uncle told me that your uncle is a bloody git." She whispered to Lily, who giggled.

The first years came to a halt as Professor McGonagall placed a ragged and ancient looking hat on a chair before them.

"Eeww!" One girl squealed. "I hope we don't have to touch it!" There were disgusted whispers heard throughout the crowd, mostly from the girls. They were silenced however when the tattered hat burst into song. After it was done, most breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that all they would have to do was try the hat on. The squealing girl however looked absolutely repulsed. Cassandra turned to the boy from the boat who was now proudly introducing himself to Lily as Adrian.

"What were you saying about a test?" She asked. He glared at her angrily.

Professor McGonagall began to call out names. No one paid much attention to other people being sorted and only worried about their own turn.

"Addison, Adrian!" The boy hesitated, afraid for a moment before slowly trotting toward the magical hat and placing it on his head.

"RAVENCLAW!" The hat shouted after a moment. 

"Ravenclaw!" Cassandra muttered, "How could that dense little creep get into Ravenclaw?" but no one seemed to hear her.

"Black, Sirius!" Sirius seemed undisturbed by the task at hand and sauntered right up to the stool and dramatically put on the hat.

"Hmmmm…" said the hat in his ear, "Very loyal, very brave. Quiet bright too, if you didn't let mischief get in the way. The best place for you is…GRYFFINDOR!" Sirius slid off the stool and walked, no, skipped to a seat at the Gryffindor table. He looked around to see if he could find his cousin and finally spotted her at the Ravenclaw table. She smiled pleasantly at him and waved.

Lily stood nervously awaiting her turn. She watched as the group slowly thinned and everyone was separated. She wondered what house she would be in. Would her friends be in the same house? If not, who would? What if she got put in the same house as those awful boys from the train? Two of them had already been put into Slytherin. She looked out across the Great Hall and saw Sirius chatting animatedly at the Gryffindor table. **Please let me be in Gryffindor!** She thought.

"Evans, Lily!" She took a deep breath before letting the hat fall over her eyes. She nearly jumped off the stool when the hat whispered in her ear.

"Definite bravery I see. Gryffindor perhaps? However…you are quite clever, perhaps you'd be better served in Ravenclaw. Hmmm…what was that? With Mr. Black? Blindly following friends may lead you into trouble Miss Evans. Are you sure? In that case, off you go to…GRYFFINDOR!" Lily let out the breath she didn't realize she had been holding and quietly made her way to a seat near Sirius.

"Congratulations Lily! This is the best house I hear." Lily beamed at him and they chatted for a while. The sorting continued and soon a few more Gryffindors joined them.

"Lupin, Remus!" Almost as soon as it touched his head the hat yelled,

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Miller, Cassandra!" was made a Gryffindor.

"Pettigrew, Peter!" stayed on the stool for nearly a whole minute before becoming a Gryffindor and then came,

"Pierce, Angela!" she put the hat on eagerly and waited.

"Miss Pierce, where shall we put you? No lack of bravery, that's for sure. Also clever and very perceptive. Ravenclaw would do you good no doubt. But then again, you like to bend the rules. No Ravenclaw won't do. Willing to do whatever it takes to get your way. Slytherin perhaps?" **No! **Angela thought **I've heard about them! I've seen them! They're not a happy bunch! I don't belong there! **"Perhaps you're right. Well then, let's go with…GRYFFINDOR!" She took off the hat and hurried toward the Gryffindor table.

"Finally!" Sirius joked. "For a moment I thought it wouldn't sort you at all."

"What did it say?" Lily asked.

"Potter, James!"

"I'll tell you later." Angela muttered.

"GRYFFINDOR" shouted the hat and James made his way over to them and sat down. They talked excitedly for a moment until Angela whispered,

"Sirius! Isn't that you're girlfriend?" She pointed to "Walker, Desiree" who was now putting on the sorting hat.

"Shut up!"

"I just thought you should know."

"She's not my girlfriend!"

"Yet." Remus added. Sirius growled.

"Here he goes again." Angela sighed. Sirius was about to reply when the Sorting Hat yelled,

"SLYTHERIN!" Sirius paled immediately. Angela and Remus both burst out laughing.

"Sirius is in love with a Slytherin!" Angela said as she gasped for air.

"I am not!" He protested, but it was to no avail. They just laughed harder.

Soon the ceremony ended and the headmaster, Dumbledore said a few words, including a warning about staying out of the Forbidden Forest. During this warning, Adrian sent Cassandra a superior look from the Ravenclaw table. When Dumbledore finished, food magically appeared before them, much to the amazement of the first years.

After the feast had ended, the houses were lead to their individual common rooms to retire for the night. The next day would be the start of classes and for the first years, the beginning of a whole new world.

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A/N: Did you like it? Let me know! Review! The next chapter should be longer. Now that we're done with the sorting we can get to the good stuff! YaY! Pray for no writer's block! Review! Until next time…

Ebony Ice


	5. Truth, Sirius and the Library, May They ...

A/N: I know the Hogwarts library probably isn't as big as I make it out to be, but this is how I like to picture so…deal with it.

I would like to thank Rosezgarden and Musicizdbest (Colleen) for reviewing, I'm very appreciative.

Disclaimer: If I owned them, do you really think I'd be doing this?

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 5- Truth, Sirius and the Library, May They Never Meet

 Early the next morning, when all were still asleep. All but one. One girl who was sitting in the common room. Cassandra. She had been stirred from her sleep by a rather horrifying dream. A vision. 

Her visions usually came as dreams. Nightmares really. They were more vivid than normal dreams. That was the only way she could tell the difference, until the dreams came true that is. This one was different though, less realistic. She couldn't really understand it. Usually her visions were pretty straightforward, like watching an actual event taking place. This one though…

She was standing in a room, she didn't know where. There was a tall man and a young girl, they were laughing and having a good time together, only Cassandra couldn't hear anything and it seemed as though they were floating. The man had brown hair and kindly face. She got a closer look at the girl and to here surprise it was one of the girls she met last night, Angela. Cassandra called to her and she turned around, back facing the older man. She smiled and waved to Cassandra. Cassandra smiled back for a moment but she then saw a horrifying sight. It was an animal, a dog or a wolf or something, running toward them, looking hungry. It grabbed the man behind Angela and started dragging him away. Cassandra screamed and tried to run after them but couldn't move. Angela looked at her oddly and turned around but the man was completely gone. She looked around confused and Cassandra could see her calling him. She was saying…oh what was she saying? She couldn't remember.

"Cassandra?" She was startled and whipped around to see Remus standing behind her. "What are you doing up this early?" She smiled weakly at him.

"Nothing really. I just had a bad dream and couldn't sleep anymore."

"Really? Would you like to talk about it?" Cassandra shook her head.

"No I'm fine now. What are you doing up this early?" she asked changing the subject.

"I couldn't sleep anymore either. It happens sometimes, I just get restless, I don't know why." This was only half the truth. He did get restless sometimes, but he knew exactly why. The full moon was approaching and he always had trouble sleeping during this time.

"Well, in that case, why don't you join me? I could use the company," Cassandra said meekly, unsure if he would really want to. He didn't really know her that well. Fortunately for her, he smiled obligingly and sat next to her. "So what do you think so far? About Hogwarts, I mean." Remus smiled.

"Honestly? As pathetic as it may sound and even though we've only just arrived last night, it's probably the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"It's not that pathetic. I would probably have to say the same thing. I mean, I love my Gram and all, but I was happy to get away." Remus nodded understandingly. Cassandra laughed for a moment. "What do you think of Sirius and James and all of them?" Remus grinned.

"I think with those two around, there will never be a dull moment," he joked. "Angela, too. Truth be told I'm not sure I fit in so well with them." A sad look fell over Remus' face, but was gone just as quickly as it had come.

"Why?" Cassandra asked. Remus shook his head dismissively.

"Just a feeling," he replied. Cassandra had a feeling there was more to it than that, but didn't pry. After all they had only just met and it wasn't like she had told him everything yet either. They sat in silence for a moment until Sirius and James came bounding down the stairs. 

"Good morning everyone!" Sirius greeted, "I trust you all slept as well as I did." Remus and Cassandra groaned. How could he be so energetic after just waking up?

"Good morning, Sirius. Hello, James," Cassandra said as cheerily as she could, given her lack of sleep. Soon, though, the serious mood had passed as they began talking about today's classes. They had Potions with the Slytherins and Charms with the Hufflepuffs. More tired looking Gryffindors filtered into the common room and soon began making their way down to breakfast. James, Sirius, Remus and Cassie, as Sirius had dubbed her, waited for the rest of their party to wake up before beginning their journey to the Great Hall.

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"Does anyone know where we're going?" Lily asked, somewhat annoyed. They had been following Sirius, which was a mistake by the way, down the stairs. Unfortunately, Sirius seemed to think that stopping at every floor to take a look around was a necessity. Being that they started on the top floor it was needless to say that they made a lot of detours. They were now wandering around the second floor, lost somewhere in the library.

"Yes," Sirius insisted, "I just want to have a look about."

"We've been having 'a look about' for the past half hour. Haven't you seen enough?" Angela asked, irritably.

"I'm kind of interested in seeing what's around actually. Don't want to get lost when we actually have somewhere to be, do we?" Peter said helpfully. Cassandra rolled her eyes.

"We do have somewhere to be. It's called breakfast." Cassandra shook her head and whispered to Angela and Lily, "Now I know why my mum yells at my dad for not stopping for directions," Lily and Angela snickered.

"I heard that!" Sirius shouted, "We are not lost!"

"Of course did Dog-Boy. Canines have a heightened sense of hearing. Yet more proof of your true species," Angela joked. Sirius turned to glare at her.

"Dog-Boy?" Peter asked. Sirius ignored him.

"At least I can control a little cart, Angel Cake."

"Hey! That was an accident!" Angela protested.

"No it wasn't," Cassandra said before she had a chance to think about it.

"What?" Sirius asked, interestedly.

"She meant to do it, I saw her." Angela paled. Cassandra realized what she did and added, "I thought you knew." Sirius turned on Angela.

"You meant to run me over?"

"Well…not exactly," Angela said nervously. Sirius did not look happy. "I just meant to scare you a bit."

"Scare me a bit? By killing me?!" Sirius shouted, enraged. The others backed away form him a bit.

"No, I meant to stop it before it hit you, honestly! But I lost control." She shrugged and added, "I'm sorry."

"I'm sure," Sirius said furiously. "So sorry that you spent the rest of the day calling me Dog-Boy?!" Angela straightened herself and started to get angry herself.

"I told you I'm sorry, what more do you want?" Sirius stepped closer to her and got into her face.

"Nothing," he whispered, venomously. He turned and stomped away angrily.

"Fine! Dog-Boy was too good a name for you! Stubborn jackass seems to fit much better!" she yelled after him and tramped away in the other direction. The others stood in shock for a moment before James lost it.

"You just had to open you're big mouth didn't you?!" James accused.

"Me?! I was just telling the truth!" Cassandra said, defensively. They too walked off in their separate ways, leaving Remus, Lily and Peter standing speechless.

"That went well." Remus said after a moment.

"Do you think we should go after them?" Lily asked.

"So that we can get lost, as well?" Peter asked. Lily shrugged.

"I'm certain they can find their own way out of here. I say we go to breakfast and if they don't show up, we'll get help," Remus resolved. Lily and Peter agreed. The remaining three then turned around and walked in the direction they had just come.

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"What kind of crazy person goes around running into complete strangers with luggage? Honestly!" Sirius muttered to himself as he wandered around the library. "The least she could have done tell the truth."

"I quite agree, dearie." Sirius spun around and found himself face to face with an honest to god ghost. At first the sight terrified him, but he had seen ghosts at the feast and figured this was nothing out of the ordinary at Hogwarts. "Honesty is the best policy," the ghost added.

"Hello," Sirius said, a bit guarded. The ghost smiled kindly at him. She was a pleasant old woman…er…ghost and looked as though she belonged at least a century ago.

"Good morning young fellow! How do you do?"

"Quite well thanks. And you?" Sirius asked politely.

"Marvelous! Thank you. Now tell me young sir, what brings you to my part of the library?"

"Well…" Sirius began, suddenly afraid he might be in trouble, "I was just looking around a bit with my friends."

"Really? And where did they run off to?"

"I had a bit of a quarrel with one of them and I walked away. I thought I'd find a way out of here by myself, but it's a much bigger library than I thought," he admitted.

"Yes, it is rather large, isn't it?" The ghost smiled, seemingly pleased with this fact.

"Yes, and I thought I might find the librarian, but I have not seen her."

"Oh, she's off to breakfast I'd suppose. Not to worry dearest, I'll help you find your way out."

"Thank you!" Sirius replied gratefully. "My name is Sirius, by the way," he introduced himself, the thought of just how odd this conversation was suddenly hitting him. He was talking to a ghost!

"Glad to meet you Sirius. I am Madam Ruth." Sirius nearly raised his hand to shake hers, but thought better of it. She seemed to read his thoughts and smiled knowingly at him. "Come along. We must hurry, don't want to miss breakfast do you?" Sirius shook his head and followed the ghost through the library. 

They came to the exit, Sirius thanked Madam Ruth and she told him to come visit her in the library anytime and then floated away. As Sirius watched her go, he thought idly about what a horrible fate it would be to have to haunt a library. He was sharply awakened from his thoughts by a loud screech coming somewhere from the depths of the library which was soon followed by an even louder, more frightened shriek.

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Angela walked around the library, not really paying attention to where she was going. **I told him I was sorry. I wouldn't do it again.** She smiled to herself. **Well, maybe I would…but I'd make sure to stop before I hit him this time! And talk about a temper! It really was an accident. And besides, it happened yesterday. Someone should tell that boy to stop living in the past. I'm over it, he should be too, **she thought, matter-of-factly.

She glanced around and realized she had no idea where she was. **Perfect! Now I really am lost! **Her heart began to beat a little faster.** This place is eerie. You would think they would have woken up to the 20th Century already. Castles don't necessarily have a quota on how many innocent children they have to frighten anymore. The medieval days are over. **

She glanced at the shelves next to her when something caught her eye. It was a book, nothing unusual to find in a library, but this book appeared to be covered in…was that? Blood? She poked the book with her finger and it felt wet. She quickly jerked her finger away. **Eww…how could they keep something like this in a school library? Unless…could this be? The Restricted Section. **She vaguely remembered hearing the Headmaster mention this section last night at the feast. She looked around suspiciously. **It must be.** She thought. **I better leave before someone catches me.**

Angela turned to leave, but was struck with a sudden curiosity. **Then again,** she thought, **how many people get a chance to look in the Restricted Section on their first day? I may never have another opportunity to see just what they don't want me to. How can I turn it down?** She turned back to the books. **What harm could it do really? After all, they were just books.** She glanced around making sure the coast was clear and carefully picked up a book. She took a deep breath and opened it.

"It's blank!" she said without thinking. **What good is a blank book? More importantly, what is so dangerous about a blank book?** She thought curiously. **Surely they can't all be blank. **She put the blank book back and reached for another. She was about to open it when she heard two screams, one right after the other.

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James strolled through the library, his anger gone, now replaced with a tinge of embarrassment at his outburst.  He didn't mean to yell at Cassandra like that, but he had been having fun, exploring with his new friends and she had ruined the mood. It wasn't really her fault he supposed, she was, as she had said, just telling the truth. He glanced at his surroundings. **This place is just too big,** he thought, **I bet half of these books haven't been read in about a 100 years.**

James decided that it was probably time to be leaving, the others must already have gone, he supposed. As much as he'd like to explore the hidden parts of this library, **if mum could only see me now! She would be so proud, her son, actually wishing to stay in the library! **He had other things to do today. Classes to get to and all that rubbish. He doubted very much that his mother would appreciate a letter from Dumbledore saying he had missed his first day classes. Maybe he would come back some other time.

James turned back from whence he came and spotted Cassandra wandering near by. She seemed not to even notice his presence and looked rather lost in thought. **Uh-oh! I wonder if she's still mad at me? Better not take the chance.** James knew that the wrath of a female scorned was nothing to mess with. He ducked behind a nearby bookshelf. He held his breath hoping she would pass without noticing him. After a moment without her walking by, he peered out from behind the bookshelf and to his surprise saw…nothing. **Where did she go?** He wondered. He stepped out from behind the shelf and glanced around. She was nowhere to be seen.

"AAAAHHHHHH!" came a scream from behind him. James jumped and shrieked in surprise. He whipped around and came face to face with no other than the 'scorned female'. She was look very pleased with herself indeed. James was breathing hard and looked suddenly very angry.

"What…did you think…you were doing!" he demanded.

Cassandra simply replied, "Getting even." To this James could say nothing, he did somewhat deserve it.

They heard footsteps running in their direction and were soon joined by Angela, followed by Sirius.

"What happened?" Angela asked trying to catch her breath.

"Nothing really. James and I were just settling something." Cassandra smirked and James stayed silent.

"Well, next time, do think you could settle things a bit quieter?"

"I think that is a superb idea," said a new voice emerging behind them. They all turned to see none other than Albus Dumbledore towering over them. "After all, this _is_ a library," he said with a slight twinkle in his eye.

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A/N: Did you like it? Want to know what happens next? Review! Let me know! I have to know whether anyone is eager to find out what happens next or not. If not then I can take my good old' sweet time. If I know people are counting on me, I might be a little more motivated to get the next chapter up.

Until next time…

Ebony Ice


	6. Dumbledore Knows All

A/N: Okay this chapter is a bit short, but what can you do? Inspiration strikes in mysterious ways. It's actually a bit longer than I originally planned.

I would like to thank Rosezgarden and Musicizdbest (Colleen) for reviewing! You guys rock!

Disclaimer: This is so tedious. Do I really have to put this every time? They're not mine! Except for Angela and Cassandra and a few other background characters here and there.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 6- Dumbledore Knows All

Professor Dumbledore escorted them all silently into his office.

"Please, have a seat," he offered, motioning to the chairs in front of them. 

As the others took in the sight of the Headmaster's office, Cassandra could only think about how she had already failed her Gram. **I wasn't even here for 24 hours and I've already gotten myself into trouble,** she thought, guiltily.

"Now, who would like to explain why you were causing such a commotion in the library? Most students wait until at least 9:00 A.M."

"Learning?" Sirius suggested.

"Yes, Mr. Black, but learning what, I wonder. There is no need to study before you have even begun you're first class." Sirius wondered how Dumbledore knew his name already. They hadn't yet met and he couldn't possibly remember just from the sorting. He guessed it must just be a wizard trick.

"We were just…familiarizing ourselves with the school a bit," James explained. Dumbledore smiled a little.

"Ah…yes. It is very important to be familiar with one's surroundings. However, I do hope that next time you should be at least have breakfast before beginning any new explorations." He smiled a bit at these students' audacity. Not many first years dared to wander off into unknown parts of Hogwarts in their first week, let alone within the first few hours of arriving. "I do also hope that the next time you venture into the library, you will quiet yourselves just a tad. I'm sure our librarian would much appreciate it." They waited for him to say something more, to punish them, but he didn't.

"Aren't we in trouble?" Cassandra blurted out. Dumbledore smiled at her.

"No, Miss Miller. You have done nothing to warrant punishment, except be a little noisy. I don't think that's really a punishable offence. At least, not on your first warning." Cassandra breathed a sigh of relief. Her Gram would never have to know. "You may leave now," Dumbledore dismissed them. As they were walking out the door, he called Angela back. "Miss Pierce, could you stay a moment?" She told the others to go on without her and turned back into the Headmaster's office, feeling slightly apprehensive.

"Yes, sir?" she said, trying to sound as innocent as possible, a technique she had perfected.

"I must also ask that you refrain from wandering in the Restricted Section again." Angela's jaw nearly dropped to the floor. For a moment, she considered lying, but then thought better of it.

"Yes, Professor."

"Good. Have a nice day Miss Pierce." She smiled at him gratefully and quickly made her way to the Great Hall to rejoin her partners in crime. She saw them now reunited with Remus, Lily and Peter.

"What did he say?" James asked as Angela sat next to him at the table. She grinned.

"He told me to stay out of the Restricted Section."

"Why would he tell you that? He already announced that all students must stay away from the Restricted Section last night," Cassandra asked. Angela shrugged innocently.

"Maybe because he saw me there this morning." Everyone immediately ceased their activities, except for Angela who sipped her juice as if this was just a normal conversation.

"You were in the Restricted Section?" Lily whispered incredulously.

"Sure. It's not like it's hidden," Angela said while buttering her toast.

"But…but," Peter stuttered, "It's restricted." Peter wasn't used to breaking or even bending the rules. What would his mother say?

"Really? I had no idea," Angela said, as though this was new information.

"And Dumbledore didn't punish you?" This was the first thing Sirius had said to her since their…disagreement. Angela shook her head and Sirius' face fell disappointedly. "What a pity," he said sadly. Angela glared at him.

"What did you find?" Remus asked. Angela turned to him.

"Not much, really. Before I had a chance to see much I heard James and Cassandra scream and I ran off to find them."

"Wait, why were James and Cassandra screaming?" Lily asked.

"Long story," Angela started to say, but Sirius interrupted.

"Well it's interesting, actually. It seems that girls fancy striking fear in the hearts of innocent boys." Cassandra and Angela both snorted when he said 'innocent', but he ignored them. "Tell me Lily, do you enjoy this lovely pastime, as well?" At this point, all the girls were glaring at Sirius, but he just kept on grinning. Angela cleared her throat.

"At any rate, as I was saying," she shot one last dirty look at Sirius and continued, "that's how we ended up in Dumbledore's office in the first place. He found us there, James and Cassandra screaming their heads off and asked us to follow him. I'm sure that if I could have had more time in there I would have found something more interesting. Oh! I did find a book covered in…well…it looked as though it was covered in blood." There was silence for a moment and then…

"Are you sure?"

"Couldn't be!"

"You must be joking"

"You can't be serious!"

"No, that's me!"

"SIRIUS!" they all shouted and James slapped him upside the head.

"They wouldn't keep a book like that in our library! It's unsanitary!" Lily exclaimed, disgusted.

"I guess that's why it's in the Restricted Section, Lily" 

"Shut up James!"

"I will not!" he replied. "No one can silence…" Remus shoved a piece of toast in his mouth, effectively silencing him as he was distracted and sat happily eating his toast.

"Who would want a book covered in blood?" Remus wondered.

"Hogwarts, apparently" Angela shrugged. "Uh-oh," said looking at the clock, "We'd better finish up. We have Potions first thing and we still have to go grab our things. Don't want toget in trouble for being late."

"Yeah, wouldn't want to get into trouble on the first day. Oh wait…we already did that!" Sirius said sarcastically. On that note they finished their breakfast and went about their day. First class…Potions!

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A/N: I told you it was fairly short. I hope you liked it! Please Review! I'll try to have the next chapter up soon. Anyway…one of these days I'm going to write a story explaining how Dumbledore knows everything. It'll be called "How Dumbledore Knows Everything". All I need to do is figure out just HOW Dumbledore knows everything. Hmmm…I don't know why I thought of that.

Until Next Time…

Ebony Ice


	7. Mission: Disengage Braids

A/N: I know the last chapter wasn't one of the better ones but this one should be a bit better. I also apologize for the delay with this chapter. My computer decided to be evil and delete everything I wrote. Fortunately, I save all of what I have written to a disk. However, as I said, my computer was being mean and wouldn't read the disk right and everything came out in those little box-letter things. But, not to worry! Everything is fine now. My computer and I have come to an agreement. It saves my work correctly and I don't kick it. We're very happy now. Anyway, on we go!

Thanks to…

Rosezgarden 

Musicizdbest (Colleen)

The Dumb Brunette 

You guys are the best!

Disclaimer: You know the drill. JK Rowling owns most of these characters, though not all of them. You know who I'm talking about.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 7- Mission: Disengage Braids

"Sirius just give it back," Remus said exasperated.

"Never!" Sirius yelled as he ran wildly around the Potions classroom. Class hadn't begun yet and the Professor was nowhere to be seen. Sirius had taken it upon himself to amuse the class while they waited. He had grabbed Angela's textbook and was now running madly about with it under his arm, refusing to give it back. Sirius seemed to find this hilarious, but the others quickly grew tired of his antics.

"Sirius Black if you don't give that back right now I'll…" Angela threatened. Sirius stopped for a moment.

"You'll what? Hit me with your luggage cart again?" Sirius asked, laughing like crazy. His laughter was brought to a sudden halt as he was tackled to the floor. Angela grabbed her book and stood over him.

"I don't need a cart to take you out, Dog-Boy." Angela turned on heel and walked back to her seat next to Remus. Sirius sat up and rubbed the back of his head where he had hit the floor.

"You don't have to be so violent," Sirius complained, "I would have given it back." Angela smirked.

"Yes, but it's so much more fun this way," she said sweetly, but Sirius wasn't listening. He was watching something by the door. Angela followed Sirius' gaze and realized that Sirius was staring, yet again, at the Slytherin girl from the train station.

"Boys!" Angela muttered and her shook head disapprovingly.

The girl started walking toward Sirius, chatting with another Slytherin girl.

"Hello," Sirius said quietly as she walked by him. She stopped for a moment and looked at him, then continued to talk with her friend as they walked to their seats. Sirius quickly stood up, suddenly realizing he was still sitting on the floor.

**Stupid! Stupid Sirius! I must have looked like a complete idiot! Why didn't I get off the floor?** Sirius thought, angry over his folly. **She could have at least pretended to be nice! Stupid Slytherin! I should have listened to James when he warned me about them!**

"Nice move, Dog-Boy!" Angela whispered. Sirius slumped down in his seat as the Professor finally arrived.

"Good morning class," he said quickly, "I am your Potions teacher, Professor Craig. Before we begin, I would like to lay down some ground rules." The class groaned, but Professor Craig continued. "In this class, there is no room for foolishness!" he barked. "There is no guessing and hard work is the only way to survive."

"Well, I'm dead," Sirius muttered. Professor Craig's eyes flashed angrily toward him.

"I also expect that when I am speaking, you all will remain SILENT!" Sirius gulped and once again sank down in his seat. "Now, I expect all of you have come prepared and brought you textbooks with you, as you shall do everyday hereafter." He gave the class a pointed look, daring anyone to protest and when no one did he continued. "If you would, open you books to page 1. Today, we will be starting with the basics."

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"That man is awful!" James whined. "The nerve! Giving us homework after the first day!" James led the way toward their next class, Charms.

"All he asked was that we read a bit, it's not that bad," Peter reasoned.

"Not that bad!" Sirius exclaimed, "It's 10 pages!"

"With small print!" Remus said.

"And no pictures!" James added.

"On the first day!" Angela finished.

"Fine, fine! I was just saying that it could have been worse." Peter replied indignantly.

"Ahem," Lily cleared her throat, "Not that this conversation isn't fascinating and all, but if we don't hurry up a bit, we're going to be late." They walked the rest of the way silently and made it to their seat in the Charms classroom just as a kind looking old woman entered.

"Good afternoon class!" This Professor seemed much friendlier than the last. "I am Professor Roster. Today we will talk a little bit about the importance of Charms in everyday life." She droned on and soon the most of the class had drifted off into daydreams.

Cassandra got so bored that she began braiding Lily's hair. Lily, in turn, thought this was a great idea and began braiding Angela's hair. Angela seemed annoyed by the fact that she could no longer move freely in her desk and decided that others must suffer with her and she grabbed Remus, who, unfortunately for him, was sitting right in front of her, and tried to braid his hair. Remus tried to squirm away without catching the teacher's attention, but had no luck. Angela finally decided his hair was too short to braid, so she just played with it anyway she could.

James, Sirius and Peter, after trying for many minutes to conceal their laughter, decided that they could not bear to see their comrade in such a sad state and began formulating a rescue mission.

"The only way save Remus is to break the whole chain," James whispered in a mock army general voice. "If Lily still has a hold on Angela, Angela won't let go of Remus and so on and so forth. Peter, it is your job to distract Cassie. Sirius you go after Angela."

"No problem, sarge!" Sirius saluted.

"I'll take care of Lily. Remember, don't get caught!" James warned. "Ready! Peter you go first!" Unbeknownst to Professor Roster, who continued to droll on about Charms and such, Peter slowly crouched down onto the floor and crawled to his destination.

"Psssst! Cassandra!" Cassandra jumped a bit triggering chain reaction of hair pulling down the line. Remus let out a slight whine of pain and they all looked nervously at Professor Roster, but she seemed not to notice. Peter shot an apologizing look toward James and Sirius and continued. "Cassandra! Guess what I have!" Peter whispered excitedly.

"Peter, what are you doing down there? You're going to get in trouble!"

"But I wanted to show you something. Look!" Peter pulled out a small furry animal from his pocket.

"What is it?" Cassandra asked perplexed.

"It's a ferret!" Peter whispered, "Isn't it cute!"

"Peter, where did you get a ferret? Where have you been hiding it all day? You know we were only supposed to bring a cat, an owl or a toad as a pet."

"So…"

"Peter, why don't you sit down before you get caught?"

"But you haven't held it yet." Peter protested.

"Not right now, Peter. Go sit down."

"No not until you hold it!" he said firmly.

"Peter…" Before she could finish, Peter shoved the ferret into her arms and she let go of Lily's hair. **Mission accomplished.** Peter thought and crawled back to his seat, leaving Cassandra holding the ferret. "Wait!" she whispered, "Come back! Peter!"

As Peter slid back into his seat, James said, "Good job soldier," and slid out of his chair and headed toward Lily. Sirius turned toward Peter.

"Where _did _you get a ferret?" Peter shrugged. 

"Found it this morning." Sirius' eyes widened and he crinkled his nose.

"That's terrible! You stole someone's pet!"

"It was running free," Peter argued.

"Yeah, well you don't know where it's been. It could be that boy, Malfoy's pet!" Peter shrugged again.

"Hey Lily!" James said, "Can you help me find my, umm…quill?" Lily looked around for a moment.

"I don't see it anywhere."

"No. You have to come down here and look for it." James pulled on her arm, causing her to let go of Angela's hair and nearly fall out of her desk.

"James, I'm not getting down on the floor."

"But my quill!" Lily looked around once more when something caught her eye.

"James, you're quill is on your desk," she said dryly. James glanced back and mentally grimaced.

"So, it is. Thank you Lily." He began to crawl back to his seat, but Cassandra stopped him.

"Give _this_," she shoved the ferret into James' hands, "back to Peter."

"Yes ma'am." James saluted and, ferret in hand crawled back to his seat.

"Here Peter. I don't think she liked your little friend much." James handed Peter the little rodent.

"My turn," Sirius said and grinned. He crouched to the floor and inched toward Angela. "Angel Cake!" he whispered. She looked at him suspiciously.

"What?" Sirius pounced on her hands and tried to pry her grip from Remus' hair. James and Peter simultaneously smacked their own foreheads, the same thought crossing both their minds. **Uh-oh**.

"Let the prisoner go!" he whispered. She tried to shove him off but he till held on and as he lost his balance pulled Angela's arms with him. Angela shrieked in pain and let go of Remus' hair. The class, even Professor Roster, could hardly fail to realize what was going on now.

"Fifteen points from Gryffindor!" The Gryffindors groaned and looked murderously at Sirius who smiled sheepishly.

Mission Complete.

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A/N: Ah…the good old days! When we were younger, my best friend always used to sit in class and braid my hair. I hated that. Oh well. I wasn't really sure about this chapter, it might be a little rushed. I don't know. I hope you guys liked it. Please review! By the way I also wasn't sure about the classroom setup at Hogwarts so I'm basically going to set things up to fit my needs for the story. OK? Good.

Until Next Time…

Ebony Ice


	8. The Great Snape Revenge Plot

A/N: 8th chapter, wow! How time flies. Actually this story had been going a bit slower than I had originally planned. I hadn't expected to spend so much time just writing about the Marauders first day. Oh well. It'll turn out for the best I'm sure.

Thanks to…

Kiki

&

Everyone who reviewed the previous chapters

You guys rock! Keep it up!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 8- The Great Snape Revenge Plot

            "Can you believe that we've been here nearly two weeks already?" Lily asked. She was sitting in the Gryffindor common room with Cassandra, Peter and James.

            "It feels like we've only just arrived," Cassandra said. The others nodded. James watched as a group a fifth years walked by and frowned when he heard them say something about lazy first years. He realized, with disgust, that he _had_ just been sitting around the common room, doing nothing, in his spare time.

"We should do something," he suggested.

"We could do our homework. That Transfiguration essay is due in two days." Cassandra proposed. James wrinkled his nose.

"That's not exactly what I had in mind."

"Well, what did you have in mind?" Peter asked. James sighed. He didn't know what he wanted to do. He did however know that the last thing he wanted to do was homework. Before James had a chance to answer, Sirius and a bright-green haired Angela came storming into the common room.

"If you hadn't insulted him, it wouldn't have happened!" Sirius shouted at her.

"Me! You're the one who called him dung-eater!" Angela retorted.

"Well, you called him an ass-kisser!"

"We wouldn't even have this problem if you hadn't made me follow you to the dungeons!"

"Made you! You were practically begging to come with me! Like a little puppy!"

"Let's not forget who here is the dog!"

"That's getting real old! What's the matter? Can't come up with any new insults?" Sirius taunted.

"Oh believe me, there are plenty of other things I could call you! Dog-Boy just fits best!" 

"Er…Sirius, Angela?" James said, trying to get their attention.

"WHAT!?" they answered simultaneously and turned sharply to look at James, as if just noticing he was there. James rolled his eyes. They had been like this since the first day, constantly bickering. James couldn't figure out why they associated with each other at all. He decided they just liked to argue…a lot…about everything.

"You guys are making a scene," James explained. Sirius and Angela looked around. The entire common room had stopped to watch their fight, but now everyone began milling around once more. "Now," James said calmly, "What happened?" Angela and Sirius both began talking at the same time.

"He made me go down to the dungeons with him…"

"James, she was begging, I swear…"

"It'll be fun! He says…"

"She didn't have to come…"

"On the way down, we ran into…"

"Snape! Nosy little git!"

"Sirius just had to pick a fight! Like always!"

"He was asking for it! James, you would have done the same!"

"Called him all sorts of nasty things!"

"She called him a greasy little suck up!"

"You know how he always tries to get in good with Professor Craig! Show off…"

"He got angry…"

"Turned my hair green!"

"Well actually it's more like a nice lime color."

"Sirius! That's not the point! Where did he even learn a spell like that?! First years aren't supposed to be able to do that!"

"He's a Slytherin! He's built to cause others humiliation…"

"Oh yes. I forgot, you are the expert on being humiliated by Slytherins…"

"Shut up!"

"Make me!"

"Guys! Stop it!" James shouted over them, "Let's be civilized. What happened next?"

"Before we had a chance to do anything…" Angela started.

"What would you have done anyway? Transfigure him into a needle? Remember your match?" Angela growled. In class when they had tried to transfigure matches into needles, hers had, for some reason, turned pink. "Actually, that's not a bad idea," Sirius contemplated.

"At least mine was different! Yours didn't change at all!"  
            "Ahem," James cleared his throat.

"Oh right," Angela said. "Before we could do anything to Snape, a prefect showed up."

"A Slytherin prefect to be exact." Sirius added.

"He took ten points from Gryffindor!"

"He didn't take any from Slytherin!"  
            "Snape's the one who was using magic in the corridor! Not us!"

"What do you expect? Slytherins are corrupt, the whole lot of them!" James sighed. When would they learn?

"Well, nothing you can do about that now. Why don't you just forget about it?" James suggested.

"Forget about it?! How can I forget about it? My hair is GREEN!" James chuckled.

"I can take care of that," he said. "My uncle used to do this kind of thing to me all the time. My mum had to change my hair back at least three times whenever we had a family gathering" James pulled out his wand and changed Angela's hair back to it's natural light brown color.

"I don't know…I think she looked better as a green-head," Sirius said. Angela smacked his arm. "Heh heh…ow…"

"We still can't let him get away with this," Angela protested. "It's the principle of the thing."

"I agree," said Sirius. James put his hand over his heart and pretended to have a heart attack.

"My God! You agree with her? I thought I'd never live to see the day…" James said proudly, "My little Sirius is all grown up."

"Shut up, James."

"What exactly are you planning?" Lily asked, finally entering the conversation.

"Revenge, my dear Lily, revenge." Cassandra winced at this. **This cannot end well, **she thought.

"Hhmmm…count me in!" James said. He didn't particularly like Severus Snape either. Vengeance could be fun.

"Me too," Sirius agreed.

"Same here," Lily said. Angela turned to Cassandra and Peter.

"How about it? Are you two in or out?" Cassandra and Peter looked at each other for a moment and slowly nodded.

"I'm in," Cassandra replied.

"I'm in as well," Peter said.

"Good," Angela said, "Now where is Remus?"

"He had to go to the hospital wing," James replied, "he wasn't feeling well. Didn't look too good either." Angela thought for a moment.

"Okay, when Remus comes back, we'll begin phase one of the Great Snape Revenge Plot." A grin slowly crept onto James' face. No one could accuse them of being lazy first years now. Now they had ambition. Now they had a goal. Now they had The Great Snape Revenge Plot. 

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A/N: So the rivalry between Snape and…everyone else finally begins! You like? Please review! You have to let me know what you like and what you don't. How else am I going to figure out what to write more of and what to write less of?

Until Next Time…

Ebony Ice


	9. Determination

A/N: Not much action in this chapter. I'm trying to get into character thoughts and emotions a little more. This chapter is pretty short and Remus-centric. Enjoy! Please review!

Thanks to…

Rosezgarden & Everyone who reviewed the previous chapters

You are all awesome! Keep it up!

Disclaimer: Plot and a few characters belong to me. The rest is J.K. Rowling's. Damn her!

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 9- Determination

            Remus felt terrible.

Last night had been his first transformation since arriving at Hogwarts and by far his worst in a long time, maybe ever. Remus had a feeling that the wolf didn't care much for its' new surroundings. He couldn't remember when he had ever hurt this much.

Remus was reluctant to return to the dormitory. He knew he would have to come up with some phony story to tell everyone about what had happened to him. Madam Pomfrey had tried to fix his scratches and bruises as well as she could, but as previously mentioned, this month the wolf had been particularly violent. Remus knew he must still look horrible because he was gaining many bewildered stares he trotted down the corridor.

Remus hesitated for a moment at the painting of the Fat Lady before giving her the password and entering the common room. He was relieved to see that there weren't many students sitting in the common room. **They must all be at breakfast,** he thought. Remus wasn't very hungry, so he decided to head up to his bed to rest for a bit.

Last night had not only left him with many awful wounds, but also a feeling of distress. He truly realized for the first time since coming to Hogwarts that he could never really fit in here. For the first couple weeks, he could pretend that everything was normal, that he was normal. He had friends. He felt that he fit in so well with them, but last night he realized that he didn't really. They didn't know everything about him, they didn't know the biggest part of him. Surely if they did find out, and Remus was sure they would, given time, they would desert him. No one wanted a werewolf. Not his father, not his stepfather. He didn't blame them…he hated werewolves as much as anyone. If it weren't for the werewolf that had bit him, he would be able to have a normal life.

Remus was brought out of his thoughts by the loud entrance of James, Sirius and Peter.

"Remus!" Sirius said cheerfully. Remus sat up and they all gasped. **Uh-oh**, Remus thought, **here we go!**

"What happened to you?" James asked.

"Well, er… **Come on Lupin! Think!** Last night on my way to the hospital wing, I started to feel a bit, er, faint. My legs buckled when I was walking down the stairs and I fell down a couple flights." He finished quickly.

"Are you okay?" Peter asked, almost wincing at the thought of this. Remus nodded, but the other boys weren't so easily convinced.

"You look like shit, Remus." Sirius said, his voice completely void of mirth. Remus shrugged. He wasn't sure how to answer that. James cleared his throat.

"We have something to tell you Remus." Remus' heart began beating a little faster. "While you were ill last night, we all decided come up with an attack plan against that greasy little Slytherin, Severus Snape." Remus relaxed and looked gratefully at James for changing the subject.

"Why exactly?" Remus asked, raising an eyebrow. Sirius scoffed.

"Why not? That little suck up needs to be taught a lesson."

"We'll explain later," James said, "We should be getting to Herbology right about now."

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After class, they all returned to the common room and proceeded to inform Remus about the little tiff between Angela, Sirius and Snape the previous night.

"Does that really give you good reason to plan an attack against him?" Remus asked skeptically.

"Yes, it bloody well does!" Sirius said, "He made us lose house points!"

"And he turned my hair green!" Angela added.

"Well, that wasn't SO bad. Kind of funny actually…" Angela smacked Sirius upside the head. "Would you stop that!"

"At any rate," James continued seriously, "if we don't retaliate, it would be an insult to Gryffindors everywhere. Snape must be taught that an attack on one of us is as good as an attack on all of us. You'll help us won't you?" Remus thought they may have been overreacting a tad, but it could be fun…

"Unless you're not up to it," Lily added. She had been worried about Remus since she first laid on him this morning. He looked liked he may keel over at any minute. That, however, cinched it for Remus. He made a decision right then and there. He wouldn't let his 'condition' pull him away from his friends. He would show them all just how strong he really was.

"I'm in."

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A/N: Aaawww…I love Remus. He's awesome. Him and Sirius. And James. Oh hell! I love them all! Except Peter of course! You have no idea how hard it is to pretend he's a good guy right now. Grrrrr… Oh well, just wait until he starts going evil. Then I can have some fun. Rat on a stick anyone? Not to eat of course, eewww… Torture purposes only. Anyway…did you like it? Please review! Let me know what you think. I'm beginning to think there are only like…3 people reading this story. ~pouts~ Oh well.

Until Next Time…

Ebony Ice


	10. Breaking Up is Hard to Do

A/N: Next chapter! WooHoo! A thesaurus is an author's best friend! Don't ask…you don't want to know. This chapter is kind of short because I need your opinion on something in the end. You'll see… Read on! Please review!

Thanks to…

Claire Bear Blondie & the Anonymous person & Everyone who reviewed the previous chapters

You are all awesome! Keep it up!

Disclaimer: MINE! ALL MINE! Some of it anyway…

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 10- Breaking Up is Hard to Do.

Over the next few weeks, the seven conspirators plotted and planned against Snape and pulled a few good pranks against him. A dungbomb here, a howler there. They certainly had the other students laughing, except for the Slytherins of course and few uptight prefects. Yet, for all their success in humiliating Snape, they still weren't satisfied. They wanted to do something big…something no one would ever forget…but what?

"Psst! James!" Sirius whispered.

"Sirius, can't we talk later? I don't want Professor Craig to hear us!" James murmured.

"But Jaaames! I'm bored!"

"Silence!" Professor Craig barked. "Ten points from Gryffindor for disrupting my class! Next time it'll be twenty!" Craig turned back to the rest of the class and continued his lecture "Veritaserum is a very powerful potion. It forces the drinker to tell only truth. It is far too advanced for first years, but I believe that you all should have at least a basic knowledge of it." 

By this time James and Sirius had already blocked Craig's voice out and were now writing outraged notes back and forth.

**Unbelievable! We weren't making that much noise! Ten points from Gryffindor!**

**I know! The man is awful! How could Dumbledore hire someone like that?**

**Do you think that he's blackmailing Dumbledore?**

**No! What would Dumbledore have to hide?**

Everyone has their secrets, James. Even the great Albus Dumbledore, I'm sure. Uh-oh! Craig is looking this way! Watch out!

"Gentlemen, need I remind you that you are still in class?" Craig asked.

"No, sir." James and Sirius answered simultaneously.

"Good. Then I assume you were paying attention and can tell me the exact uses for Veritaserum." James and Sirius looked at each other, hoping one had caught that during the lesson, but it was hopeless.

"Umm…you hadn't gotten to that part yet, sir." Sirius said, hoping it had been a trick question. Craig smiled at both of them.

"Detention," he said simply. Sirius groaned and James elbowed him.

"Nice one!" James said sarcastically.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"I thought he said next time it'll be twenty points! I don't remember him saying anything about detention!" Sirius complained as he cleaned out the bottom of a particularly nasty cauldron. James rolled his eyes. Sirius had been complaining throughout the entire detention. James had almost learned to block it out.

"Sirius, we're almost done. Why don't you quit whining and just finish that cauldron so we can leave." Sirius looked a little put out by this, but only for a moment.

"That's another thing! What kind of detention is cleaning out cauldrons! They could just clean this up real easy with magic! Why do we have to do it?" James sighed.

"It's a punishment. They want us to learn something I think." James was convinced that Sirius just couldn't tolerate silence, even for a brief moment. He sighed again and continued his work.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Well, hello there delinquents!" Angela said as James and Sirius walked into the common room. She was sitting with Remus and Lily. "How was detention?" They groaned. They were really tired and didn't feel like being harassed right now. "That bad, huh? No need to worry anymore! We were just having a lovely discussion about Snape. Planning the next attack, you know." Sirius plopped down in an armchair.

"What did you come up with?" he asked.

"Not much, we're kind of stumped."

"Hmmm…we need to do something big, something no one would expect," James said.

"Aren't you done with Snape yet?" James turned and saw Cassandra and Peter standing behind him, each with an arm full of books. Cassandra continued, "He's hardly retaliated at all, except for that one time…and your eyebrows grew back!"

"What we've done so far is nothing," Angela said. "Everything we've done so far is just child's play. Half of it he didn't even know was us, the stupid git thought it was the Hufflepuffs!"

"I know, but don't you think you're taking this a little too far?"

"Look," James said, "If you want out, that's fine. That goes for everyone.  But I'm not going to stop now, it's just getting good and I'm having too much fun. It's not like we've really hurt anyone and we're doing anything illegal. I don't see the problem."

"Same goes for me," Sirius said. Angela and Remus both agreed as well.

"I refuse to go any farther with this," Cassandra said firmly. "It was all fun and games in the beginning, but now…"

"It still is," Sirius finished. Cassandra shook her head and didn't say another word. Sirius turned to Lily and Peter. "What about you two? Are you out as well?" Peter nodded. They had already had a few close calls where teachers nearly caught them. He didn't want to get in trouble over this. He was out.

"Lily?" James asked. Lily wasn't sure. She was having a lot of fun, but…what if they were taking this too far? She never thought of herself as a cruel person…until now. Now she felt awful about herself.

"I'm…"

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A/N: What do you think? Is she in or is she out? I know what I originally planned, but now I'm not so sure… What do you guys want? Do you want Lily to go with James, Sirius, Angela and Remus or do you want her to go with Cassandra and Peter? Let me know, I make no guarantees but I might be persuaded to change my original game plan if you guys want. If you wanted to know, I was going to make her go with Cassandra and Peter. As for the first part of this chapter, it does serve a purpose, I promise! At least I think…

Until Next Time…

Ebony Ice


	11. The Perfect Prank

A/N: I'm sorry you guys. I shouldn't have asked you to help me decide what to do with my story. That was a mistake and irresponsible on my part. From now on, the writing of the Whole Story will be completely up to me. Aren't you proud? Anyway, I hope you guys like what I did finally decide to do. If not, well…like I said, this is my story and the responsibility of writing the plot is all mine. Not necessarily a bad thing. Mwahahaha! Sorry for the delay on this chapter. I had writer's block. Thanks' are at the bottom.

Disclaimer: This is the worst part of my day. Not mine. Never will be. ~sighs sadly~ At least I still own Angela and Cassandra. And the plot of course. Well…actually J.K. Rowling may have some claim to that as well. Like the werewolf thing…and the Hogwarts thing…and the whole Marauder thing… ~sighs again~

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 11- The Perfect Prank

"I'm…" Lily hesitated. In some ways she didn't want to quit. She liked planning pranks with her friends. On the other hand, was this being too cruel to Snape? Lily knew she wouldn't feel too good if she were on the receiving end of those pranks. But then again, it's not like he's totally innocent. He was always shooting rather nasty looks at them and sometimes he did some pretty mean things to them too. And like James had said, they hadn't done anything too terrible…yet. What's the worst that could happen? "I'm in." James smiled.

"Good," he said. Cassandra heaved a sigh.

"Fine! Come on Peter. WE have homework to finish." Cassandra turned on heel and walked out of the common, presumably toward the library. Peter hesitated and he too turned and quietly walked out. Lily couldn't help but feel a little guilty. Since the day on the train, she had gotten along really well with Cassandra and now she had just taken sides against her. And Peter, well…he was nice, too.

"Well, now that that's settled…" Sirius began, "what next?"

"We have to decide what to do with Snape. Any ideas?" Everyone was quiet for a moment.

"We could send him another howler," Remus suggested. Angela shook her head.

"We already did that, three times. Though, it was kind of funny when he decided not to open it the third time." They all smiled at the memory for a moment and then once again became lost in their thoughts.

"I wonder if Snape keeps a diary…" Sirius said suddenly. The others looked at him oddly. "Well…if he did…we could find it and find out all his dirty little secrets. That would surely give us an idea of what to do to him." Lily rolled her eyes.

"First of all, I doubt he keeps a diary. Not every boy is as…er…interesting as you." Sirius blushed and muttered, 'It's not a diary, it's a journal.' Lily cleared her throat and continued, "Second of all, even if he did, how would we get it? March right into the Slytherin dorm rooms? Ask him for it directly maybe?" Sirius shrugged, slightly deflated.

"It was just a thought."

"It was a good thought," said Remus suddenly, "a great thought actually" The others looked at him, confused.

"But we don't even know if he has a…"Lily started.

"We don't need one. I meant the part about exposing Snape's inner thoughts and all that."

"But how?" Angela asked intrigued.

"Veritaserum." Remus said simply. Lily and Angela gasped, but Sirius and James had identical looks of 'what's that?' on their faces.

"But Remus, we're much too young to make a Veritaserum potion. It's too advanced!" Lily protested.

"What's Veritaserum?" Sirius asked, anxious to be involved. He was, however, ignored.

"_We_ don't have to make it," Remus said. 

"We have to get it somewhere, don't we?" Lily said. A light bulb suddenly went off in Angela's head. She now understood exactly what was through Remus' mind.

"Don't you remember? Professor Craig threatened all of us with it. He said he had some already made and if he suspected any of us as being 'untruthful'" she said in a mock professor voice, "that he would use it on us." James and Sirius looked at each, each wondering if the other had any idea what was going on and then said in unison,

"Use what on us?" Angela sighed.

"The Veritaserum potion. You know the thing Professor Craig was talking about while you two were earning a detention." She said accusingly. 

"Couldn't have been that important." Sirius shrugged.

            "Well now it is. Now we can use it to get Snape to tell us…everything." Remus said. James and Sirius still looked confused. "Honestly, didn't you listen to anything Professor Craig said?"

"No," James and Sirius both said.

"It's a truth potion," Lily started, "A very powerful and _dangerous_ truth potion."

"It won't be dangerous. Professor Craig will have concocted it, so we know it'll be right. And we won't use too much." Remus reasoned.

"Yeah and just think of all the things Snape might say…it's perfect. We could ask him all sorts of questions and he would have to answer them! We'll get him good this time." Angela said.

"But if Craig finds out, if he knows someone used Veritaserum on Snape… Everyone knows that we've been pranking Snape, he'll know it was us." Lily protested. **Maybe Cassandra was right. Maybe this is going too far.** She thought.

"No he won't," Angela said. "Like you told us before, this potion is far too advanced for first years. He'll never suspect that we could have done such a thing."

"But he'll know his potion is gone."

"He'll never prove we were the ones who did it."

"Unless he uses the potion on us." Angela had no response to this.

"We just have to make sure Craig never finds out about it." James said firmly. "We can't do it while he is around."

"But…but" Sirius sputtered, "That means no one will see it! We have to do it in the Great Hall, James! This is just too good to have only a small audience!" James thought for a minute.

"We need a diversion." Lily said. **I can't believe I'm doing this! But I just can't seem to stop myself. Bad Lily!** "We need to get Craig out of the Great Hall."

"But what? How? And what about the rest of the teachers? Certainly they'll figure out what's going on. Most people don't normally just began spitting out all of their darkest secrets for no reason," James asked. Much to his dismay, he suddenly saw many holes in the plan.

"Well…Snape's not really a person, so it's ok!" Sirius said, grasping for a solution. James shook his head.

"Sorry Sirius, but he's got the teachers fooled on that one."

"We need a place where there are no teachers," Angela suggested.

"But there are teachers everywhere!" Sirius whined. He couldn't believe it! They had finally thought of the perfect prank and they couldn't carry out their plan. "Where can we go where there are no teachers, but all students are present?" he asked hopelessly.

"A Quidditch game," James said suddenly.

"A what?" Lily asked.

"Quidditch. It's a wizard sport. The season will be starting in a month or two."

"But I'm sure there are teachers at Quidditch games." Remus said.

"Yes, but they'll all be too caught up in the game to notice what's going on."

"So will the students, won't they?" Angela asked.

"Not if we tell them too keep an eye out. Or rather an ear out. We can warn the Gryffindors, the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs. No need to tell the Slytherins, obviously."

"But what if someone tells a teacher what's going on?" Lily asked.

"We won't tell them _what's_ going to happen. We'll just tell them that _something_ is going to happen."

"We can't tell any prefects either." Remus added.

"How do we get the potion?" Angela asked. James smiled and looked around the room. They were the only ones left. It was getting rather late and everyone else had gone to bed

"I know how. I'll be right back." James rushed up to his dorm room, grabbed something from his trunk and ran back to the common room.

"What's that?" Sirius asked, pointing toward the silvery material in James' hand. James grinned.

"I was waiting for the right time to show this to you guys." He looked around once more to make sure the coast was clear and draped the material around his shoulders. The others gasped as they watched the entire bottom half of James disappear.

"What is…?" Sirius began, but Remus answered his question.

"That's an invisibility cloak!" he exclaimed. "How did you get that? They don't make those anymore."

"I know. It used to be my grandfather's, then my father's, now it's mine. What do you think?"

"It's perfect!" Sirius shouted and the others shushed him. "Now we can pull this off for sure! Why didn't you show it to us before?"

"Well, I had to make sure you were all trustworthy, didn't I?" James pulled of the cloak. "Here, you have a try." He handed the cloak to Sirius, who accepted it excitedly. However, just as he was about to pull it over his shoulders, Cassandra and Peter reentered the common room.

"What are _you_ doing back here?" Sirius asked irritably. Cassandra stuck up her nose.

"Hmph! Hello to you as well! The librarian wouldn't let us in. she said it was too late and that she would let us go this time, but we'd better get back to our dorms before someone else finds us out this late." She was about to go on, when something caught her eye. "What's that?" She pointed to the cloak in Sirius' hand.

"Nothing of your concern, is it?" James said huffily and grabbed his cloak back. "Better get to bed don't you think?"

"Don't you think you ought to as well?" Cassandra asked. "Don't want to be falling asleep in class…AGAIN!" Sirius and James looked away.

"Don't you worry about us," Angela said, "we have extraordinary stamina." Cassandra glared at them all for a moment before marching up the stairs to the girls' dormitory and slamming the door. Peter turned and made his way up to the boys' dormitory. "Honestly! They don't want to help us anymore, but they want us to tell them everything? Are they mad?" Lily shrugged.

"I don't see why we have to be so mean to each other. I mean…they're free to do as they please."

"Yes, but now that they're out of the group, they have no right to go snooping around in our business."

"People, people, please! Let's remember the reason we're here," Remus said calmly.

"Remus is right, let's get on with it." Sirius said.

"Right." Remus began, "Now we know to get the potion we have to sneak into Craig's office using James' invisibility cloak. We also know that the best time to use it is during a Quidditch game. The next question is…how do we get Snape to drink it?"

"We could sneak it into his drink." Angela suggested.

"But the game will be outside.  He probably won't be drinking anything," James said.

"We'll have to give it to him at dinner." Lily reasoned.

"Will it last long enough then?"

"Hmmmm…I'm not sure, have to look it up."

"Ok. Now…which Quidditch game do we do it?"

"The first one I say," Sirius said, eager to get the plot under way as quickly as possible.

"I don't know…Wouldn't it really be the best if we did it at the Gryffindor vs. Slytherin game?" Remus suggested.

"That's brilliant! When is that?" Angela asked.

"The last game." Sirius' face fell. He didn't know if he could wait that long.

"It will be worth it," said James, who had seen the disappointment on Sirius' face.

"So that's it then?" Angela asked. "Are we all agreed?" They all nodded and slowly, grins crept onto all of their faces. This was brilliant! The perfect prank. That's what they thought anyway.

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A/N: Cassandra begs that you please don't hate her. She's really not a bad person. She just isn't that mischievous…yet. Anyway, was it good? What do you think? Please review!

Thanks to…

Rosezgarden-I really appreciate all the reviews you've left for me. They've really helped. If not for your encouragement, I'm not sure I would have kept going with the story. Well…actually I probably still would have, but I wouldn't have gotten nearly as much satisfaction out of it. Thanks again. BTW, I'm still waiting for updates on YOUR stories. 

Musicizdbest (Colleen)-I would also like to thank you because you and rosezgarden are my two most faithful reviewers. You have helped me out immensely and you deserve recognition. Thank you.

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters

You are all awesome! Keep it up!

Until Next Time…

Ebony Ice


	12. Planning

A/N: Hi! This had to have been the hardest chapter to write so far. Not because it was really that difficult of a plot but I've been getting serious writer's block lately. When I first started this story, I was writing constantly because I just had so many ideas and I still do, but all for later in the story. I just don't know what to do with this part. Oh well…fear not! I will overcome this obstacle! 

Disclaimer: Story is mine, characters are not. 

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 12- Planning

As time went by, the tension grew between Cassandra and Peter and the rest of the group. At first they seemed to put their differences of opinion aside and remained friends, but soon, they all grew apart. James, Remus, Angela, Sirius and Lily spent most of their time working out their plan against Snape. Cassandra and Peter spent a lot of time studying and though their marks began improving, they still felt terrible. They were tired of being left out of everything. 

"We should do it this weekend," Sirius suggested, impatient as ever. The five schemers were sitting in a circle on grounds of Hogwarts, trying to figure out when to sneak into Craig's potions storage.

"I can't," Remus said dejectedly.

"Why not?"

"My mum's birthday. It's tradition that we're always together on that day. Dumbledore gave me special permission to return home this weekend." The truth was that it had already been nearly a month since his last transformation and the next full moon just happened to be this Saturday night. Since last month, Remus had started making up excuses ahead of time, just to be more efficient.

"That's alright, we shouldn't do it yet anyway, it's too risky." James said.

"And why is that?"

"Well, _Sirius_, if we steal the potion too far ahead of time, then the chances of Craig realizing it's gone before we get the chance to give it to Snape are increased."

"So…"

"So," James began to get impatient, "if Craig knows it's gone, then he'll probably search the dormitories, starting with Gryffindor. We'll be caught for sure."

"Tell me then, when do you suggest we do it?" Angela asked.

"I don't know. We should wait until at least after Halloween, that's only a couple of weeks away. I'm sure even Sirius can wait that long."

"That's a matter of opinion," Sirius grumbled.

"That's perfect!" Remus proclaimed. "We should do it on Halloween, that way everyone will be too busy to pay attention to us. Craig will never suspect."

"Don't you think that is still too soon? I mean, the Qudditch game is still not for a few months. James did say that if we steal it too soon, we're more likely to get caught." Lily said. Sirius groaned.

"Yes, but we can't wait too long either. What if we can't get it the first time around? We need time to plan a new raid."

"What if we just waited until Christmas? There is still quite a bit of commotion and it gives us enough time, should we fail to get the potion, to try again." Lily suggested.

"No that won't work," James said, "Too risky. Most people go home for the holidays and if Craig figures out that the potion is gone, it gives him a much shorter list of suspects. Besides, how many of us are actually staying at Hogwarts for Christmas? I'm not."

"I am," Remus admitted sadly. He knew he wasn't wanted at home.

"My mum will probably insist that I come home." Said Lily.

"I'll probably be stranded here as well," Angela said, "I'm sure my parents will be away, again."

"I'm staying," Sirius said determined. He would much rather stay at Hogwarts than go home. 

"That would be enough people to pull it off." Angela said.

"Still, with most people gone home, Craig could easily figure it out." Lily reminded them.

"If he even figures out that the potion is gone. What are the chances?"

"We could be expelled for this. We need to think of all possible scenarios."

"Well then! I say we do it on Halloween. Seems to be the best option." Sirius said happily. He thought the sooner the better.

"Agreed." James replied and looked around. Remus and Angela nodded their heads. Lily sighed.

"I hope you're right."

"I am," Sirius assured her. She sighed again and slowly nodded her head.

"Wait a minute, we can't all fit under your cloak, can we? Who all is going?" Remus asked. 

"I'm going, obviously," James said, "as it's my cloak."

"I want go!" Sirius cried.

"I'll go as well," Remus added.

"Right then, that should be fine," Angela said. "Three should get the job done well enough." **Except when Sirius Black is one of the three,** she added to herself. "Halloween night, after the feast."

"Right," James agreed, "But what do we do about Cassandra and Peter? They've nosey lately. If they figure out what we're doing, they might go tell a teacher."

"I doubt they would." Angela said, slightly unsure. "Just in case, Lily and I will keep them distracted."

"Right then! Good plan I think!" Sirius said. "Halloween night, phase 1 of our plan begins. No turning back then." A surge of adrenaline ran through them all at these words. They were actually going do it. Up until now it seemed almost like idle chitchat. Now it was real.

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A/N: 

Thanks to…

Rosezgarden

Ringwraith9

wildcat

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters

You are all awesome! Keep it up!


	13. Down in the Dungeons

A/N: Hi! If you haven't read the 5th book, don't read the bottom A/N.

Disclaimer: Story is mine, characters are not. If they were, well, certain events of book 5 would not have happened. Am I bitter? Yes, yes I am.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 13- Down in the Dungeons

The five schemers had everything planned. Tonight was Halloween, THE night. At the feast they were all so eager that they hurried through their meal faster than was really necessary and ran up to the common room. 

"So we all know what we're doing?" Lily asked.

"Yes, Lily," Angela moaned, "We've been over this a million times. I think we're all completely aware of the plan."

"Don't worry," James said reassuringly, "everything will be just fine. We've been planning this for a month now. As long as we all do our part, it ought to go along smoothly." Lily groaned.

"Don't say that. Now we're doomed, you know. Jinxed, that's what we are." She put her head in her hands hopelessly.

"Lily, Lily Lily…" Sirius put his arm around her shoulder playfully. "You worry too much! Don't you know, what James says goes? If he says the plan is foolproof, then it's practically a law of nature."  Lily snorted and lifted her head.

"Watch it. That kind of talk will go to his head," Angela warned. This comment however went basically unnoticed by everyone. They all began to settle deep into thoughts of what they were about to do.

            Gryffindors slowly began returning from the feast. The common room soon grew very noisy and hardly anyone noticed the 5 first years, each sitting quietly in armchairs. They would use this lack of acknowledgment to their advantage and slip out quietly.

            "Well, then. Let's get on with it, shall we?" James stood, grabbed his bag, which they planned to put the potion in once they got a hold of it, and began walking out of the common room, Sirius and Remus followed.

            "Good luck!" Angela said quietly.

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"Students are not allowed to be out of their common rooms this late. You'll be in a great deal of trouble if you're caught." Said the Fat Lady as the boys climbed out of the portrait hole.

"Well then, all the more reason not to get caught, I'd say." Sirius responded.

When the boys were sure they were alone, they huddled together and draped the invisibility cloak over their bodies.

"Ready?" James asked.

"Yes you stupid prat! Now let's go!" Sirius said impatiently.

They slowly made their way down the stairs to Professor Craig's office. So far they had no troubles, but the tension and apprehension was thick in the air. If they were caught…well, they didn't like to think about what would happen then.

Once they made it down to the dungeons, they decided to take off the cloak, most everyone was upstairs anyway and the dungeon are much harder to maneuver in. They stopped and took a good look around. The dungeons seemed to split into three different directions and who knows how many more time it split off after that.

"Soooo…" Sirius whispered, "Where exactly is Craig's office?"

"Er…I'm not sure." James admitted.

"Bloody school! Can't find a rat's ass in this place!" Sirius began ranting.

"Let's go this way." Remus suggested, pointing to the right.

"They should have signs like Muggles posted in every corridor." James and Remus walked silently, Sirius on the other hand continued his tangent. "Or maybe those maps that say, 'you are here', with the dots wherever you are. Or they could also…" James and Remus quickly pulled Sirius to the ground and covered his mouth. Sirius struggled against them, but to no avail.

"Sshhh! Someone's coming!" James whispered and Sirius stopped moving. They could hear two sets of footsteps coming toward them and the vague sounds of conversation. The boys quickly scrambled to get under the Invisibility Cloak. The voices were becoming clearer and they could now listen to the conversation.

"The Headmaster must really be going mad." It was the voice of Professor Craig. James also recognized the other man as the caretaker, Filch. "Letting that _boy _attend Hogwarts as if he were a normal student! It's dangerous!" Remus' breath caught in his throat. He knew exactly who they were talking about.

"Dumbledore is too soft!" Said Filch. "He feels sorry for these…these creatures!"

"If the students found out…if the parents found out what Dumbledore let in to this school, he would be sacked! All of Hogwarts would be put under scrutiny. It was a reckless action at best!" The footsteps began to get fainter and the conversation disappeared as Craig and Filch passed the hidden students. Remus let out the breath that he hadn't realized he was holding. That was close, too close.

"What do you suppose that was all about?" Sirius asked

"I don't know." James answered truthfully. Remus simply stayed silent. "Let's go." James said when he was sure that the coast was clear. This time however, they kept the cloak on. They didn't need another close call.

They soon learned that the dungeons were much like a large maze. They found many doors, but none seemed to lead to Craig's office.

"How about this one?" Sirius asked, reaching out of the cloak for the doorknob. He turned the knob and the door flew open. They were then bombarded with snowflakes. "What the…" Sirius began, but was cut off by a loud roar. He quickly reached for the door and slammed it shut. "I don't think that was it."

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Meanwhile, Cassandra and Peter had returned to the common room and Angela and Lily were trying to keep them busy.

"So I told him that he could go eat dung for all I care. I mean, who does he think he is anyway?" Angela fumed. She was telling the others about her and Sirius' most recent tiff. Well, actually, it hadn't really happened, but she had to tell them something. Cassandra and Peter didn't seem fascinated, but at least they were being distracted.

"Is that why Sirius, James and Remus aren't joining us tonight?" Cassandra asked. Perhaps they weren't completely distracted.

"Who needs them?" Angela went on, " You know, Sirius is just being a big dumb prat and James isn't much better. Remus didn't exactly stick up for me either now that I think of it." She hoped that they got back soon. If she kept venting like this, she might actually start believing that she was mad.

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Back in the dungeons, James, Sirius and Remus were not having much luck with their task. They had no idea how big the dungeons really were, or how many odd and seemingly useless rooms there were. They had found a room, which looked suspiciously like a torture chamber, and was filled with ghosts, a room with tons of weird looking hour glasses and a room with at least fifty paintings of headless men, many of whom looked as though they had misplaced their heads and were stumbling around in search of them.

"I can't stand this anymore!" James ripped the cloak off their heads. They all looked hot and tired from running around with the cloak over them. James took the cloak and shoved it in his bag.

"This has to be it." Sirius said pointing to the last door before they reached a dead end. "This is the last door."

"The last door in this part of the dungeons." Remus corrected. "There are still more rooms in the other direction. I doubt that Craig's office would be this out of the way."

"Only one way to find out." James said and turned the handle. At first the room seemed dark and silent. They couldn't see a single thing inside. But then…

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Came a loud piercing scream from inside the room. The boys quickly scrambled to shut the door and the screaming stopped.

"RUN!" James yelled and they went as fast as they could. Someone was bound to have heard that, in fact, they would be lucky if they whole school hadn't heard that. They had no choice but to abandon the mission and get back to the common room. They made it to the stairs, if they could just get up the stairs, they might be fine.

"Gentlemen!" The boys were stopped by none other than Craig himself. For one brief and desperate moment, they considered just running, but it would be no help. Craig was bound to have recognized them. "Just what do you think you are doing?"

"Er…we were just…uh…heading back to our common room, sir" James said weakly. This only seemed to fuel the Potions Masters anger.

"Follow me." Craig ordered. He turned and went down to the left of the stairs. He led them to the second door to the right in the hallway. He quickly muttered something under his breath and unlocked the door. "In." he said. They obeyed and found that he had led them to his office. They should have known, it was right next to their Potions classroom. If only they had started in this direction first… "Sit." Craig ordered. There appeared to be only two chairs, James set his bag on the floor and sat in the first chair and Sirius sat next to him. Remus stood on the other side of Sirius. Craig walked around to the other side of his desk and faced them. "Now, you shall now leave this room until I have the truth. What were you doing down here at this time of night?" He demanded.

"We were just…er…looking around a bit. You know, we're still kind of new and we thought we would…explore our surroundings a bit." Remus explained as convincingly as he could.

"Explore? Don't you think that exploring would be better left to the day, when students are permitted out of their common rooms?"

"Well, we weren't aware that it was really…against the rules, sir, just frowned upon, so to speak." James lied.

"Well, you must be very poor listeners indeed. I happen to recall the Headmasters beginning of the year speech pointing out that specific rule."

"With so much excitement, we couldn't really…"

"And…I am sure as the Head of Gryffindor, Professor McGonagall had mentioned this rule many times."

"She goes on about so many rules, it's hard to…"

"Even if it were only frowned upon, common sense should tell you that it was not a good idea."

"I always said that common sense was in the eye of the beholder…"

"Why not save yourselves the trouble and simply explore during permitted times?"

"It's always so crowded then…"

"Unless perhaps, your exploration was a bit less…innocent shall we say? Perhaps you were searching for the Slytherin common room? Planning to plant some dung bombs? Hhhmmmm?" Craig accused. Remus was growing impatient. Craig obviously didn't know their real purpose for being down in the dungeons and so even if he punished them, their plan was not ruined. He just wished Craig would get to the point. Slowly, Remus' eyes began to wander. He studied the walls behind Craig. Not surprisingly, there were shelves and shelves of various labeled potions and ingredients. Some of them Remus recognized, most he did not. Iris potion, Shrinking Potion, Veritaserum…Veritaserum. Remus gasped.

"Is there a problem Mr. Lupin?" Remus thought swiftly and quickly pushed a quill out of his pocket.

"Er…no, sir. I just dropped something." Remus bent down so that Craig couldn't see him. Both Sirius and James looked down curiously and Remus. Remus mouthed to them Veritaserum and jerked his head toward the shelf. He quickly picked up his quill and stood. Craig eyed him suspiciously, but did not comment on it.

"At any rate, I am feeling generous tonight and I shall let you go detention-free." Remus looked over at James and Sirius, both seemed to have seen the Veritaserum now. They were so close! Now they knew where Craig's office was, but he obviously locked it, presumably with magic. How would they ever get back in? "_But_," Craig said pointedly, snapping Remus out of his thoughts, "I shall take ten points from you all and warn you that next time I will not be so gracious." There was a moment of silence and then…

"Ten points each! That's not fair!" Sirius protested, suddenly jumping out of his seat. Craig looked shocked; he obviously thought that this was a very generous punishment. James and Remus too were looking at Sirius, completely stunned. Was Sirius trying to make things worse? They had gotten off easy! Then, a light bulb seemed to go off in James' head. He tried to convey his thoughts to Remus by pointing to the potions shelf. Remus caught on quickly and nodded.

"You would be wise to hold you tongue!" Craig said dangerously.

"But we didn't do anything wrong!" James was now on his feet as well.

"Mr. Potter, I have handed out far greater punishments for much lesser crimes. If I were you…"

"Well, let's just be thankful you're not! I would hate to be so cruel and unreasonable!" Craig's eyes were nearly popping out of their sockets. He stepped out from behind the desk and faced James directly. Remus ceased this opportunity and slowly made his way around Craig's desk. Craig was so angry with James and Sirius he didn't even notice Remus' actions.

"Yeah, I remember being subjected to one of those cruel and unusual punishments!" Sirius jumped in.

"I will not be spoken to in this manner!"

"Too late!" James said. Remus backed up toward the shelves as quietly as he could. "Maybe if you weren't such a bloody git all the time…" James could not finish, he saw Remus reach for the potion and nearly knock down half the shelf. Craig seemed not to notice.

"I'm warning you!" Craig said. His face was now so red that it resembled a ripe tomato. He could hardly believe that students, first years at that, would dare talk to him like that. Remus grabbed the small bottle of Veritaserum and pocketed it.

"Ooohh! I'm terrified!" Sirius said sarcastically, giving Remus the chance to slip back from behind the desk before Craig shouted...

"Detention! All of you!" They groaned. "For an entire week!"

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They were sent back to the Gryffindor common room very tired and somewhat disappointed. It hadn't gone quite as smoothly as they had hoped. On the other hand, they had succeeded.

Upon entering the common room, they had found that most people had already gone to bed. However, Lily, Angela, Cassandra and Peter were still up and chatting. When they caught sight of James, Remus and Sirius they fell silent. Angela got up quickly and slapped Sirius in the face. She figured that this would add to her angry performance.

"That's for calling me a silly, brainless prat of a girl!" She said and stalked away, up to the girls' dormitories. Sirius watched her go, utterly shocked.

"What was that for?" Sirius looked to Lily for an answer.

"I'll tell you later." She muttered.

"Well, I'm rather tired. I think I'll be getting to bed." Cassandra said anxiously.

"Me too." Peter said. They both trudged exhaustedly to their separate dormitories. When they were out of sight, Lily turned back to the boys.

"Did you get it?" She asked quietly. They nodded and smiled.

Phase one was now complete.

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A/N: If you have not read book 5, don't read this A/N. I decided to continue the story as it is, at least for now. I may decide to change Sirius' parents into wizards later, depending on how far I want to take this story. Right now it doesn't present much of a problem. If I should take this story on, past MWPP's Hogwarts years and into Harry's Hogwarts years (I know, I know, I've been having trouble with updates and I'm only on year one. How am I going to get that far with this story? I'm trying honestly!) I have absolutely no intention of killing off Sirius. I refuse. At any rate, I hope you all liked this chapter. Please review!

Thanks to…

Someone- I would like to thank you, because not only did you help me decide whether or not I should continue, but you also advised me to beat my writers block with a stick. That is my new motto towards writers block (you will always have the credit of course)

Allie- I would also like to thank you for helping my decision. It means a lot

Ringwraith9- Don't worry Snape will get exactly what he deserves. Though, I must admit that I'm feeling a bit soft toward him since the 5th book

Kanoba829- I'll definitely have plenty of Remus in this story. (He and Sirius are my favorite characters)

Love Struck Productions- Sir Snarfleblat huh? Intriguing. Right now I don't have any use for him, but later maybe…we'll see. 

Wydinel Sheergale- I'm glad you've liked the story so far! I hope you liked this chapter, too!

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters

You are all awesome! Keep it up!

Until Next Time…

Ebony Ice


	14. Quidditch

A/N: I've discovered that I have a very difficult time with writing the beginning of chapters, but once I get them started it gets easier. So…now when I get writers block, I'm just going to force myself to begin a chapter and then hopefully the rest will just come to me.  

Disclaimer: My plot. That's about it.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 14- Quidditch

The next step in their devious plot was to plan for the day they would actually give Snape the Veritaserum. How would they get Snape to drink it? Would they be able to get to Snape during the Quidditch game? What would they ask him? How long would the potion last?

The best way to get an answer to some of these questions was to scope out an actual Quidditch game. Sirius, James, Angela and Lily were all sitting in the stands at the first game of the year, Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw, trying to work out the bugs in their plan. Remus' grandmother had died a few days prior and so he to go to the funeral and could not be there.

"Ravenclaw Chaser Sandy Conner passes the Quaffle to Jenkins. Jenkins speeds down the field…" a Hufflpuff 6th year was announcing.

"It won't be easy to get to Snape." James explained quietly. "Our Houses sit in completely different sections. If any of us sneak over to the Slytherin side, it will look suspicious."

"Not to mention that the Slytherins would certainly kick us out before we had a chance to say even one word to Snape." Sirius added.

"Superb save by the Gryffindor keeper!"

"We could lure him to our side." Angela suggested.

"How? We're not exactly in a position to ask him if he would kindly join us on the Gryffindor side."

"We could pretend to have something he wants. Or we could provoke him into coming after us." James suggested.

"Watch out for that Bludger!" The crowd made a collective noise of pain as a Ravenclaw chaser, apparently not hearing the announcers warning, was hit hard with a Bludger.

"What could that slimy git want from us?" asked Sirius, ignoring the action going on around them. "If we provoke him he would probably bring some of his Slytherin buddies."

"Snape doesn't have any buddies. We have to get him over here somehow, don't we?" James said.

"We have to get him over here immediately as the game starts. The potion will only last so long." Lily reminded them.

"We could just grab him on the we out to the Quidditch pitch. Pull him to where he needs to be."

"JENKINS SCORES! Ravenclaw pulls ahead twenty to ten."

"He would try to fight us off. The teachers are bound to notice us carrying Snape, kicking and screaming." Angela said glumly. This was getting to be much tougher than it was worth.

"We could engage him in a little…er…friendly conversation, so to speak." Sirius grinned and Lily looked at him questioningly.

"Friendly conversation? What do you mean by friendly?" She asked.

"Oh you know, just have little fun with him. Exchange a few insults, trying to come up with a good retort, he'll be distracted and simply follow us. Then when we have him where we want him, surrounded by the other students, we'll start asking him the good questions."

"Hey, Dogboy has a good idea for once." Sirius glared at Angela, who went on as if she didn't notice. "If we do it that way, surely we'll get to him before the potion runs out. _And_ there will still be a lot of commotion so the professors won't know what's going on."

"The Ravenclaw blocks. Wait…Steven Barnes the Gryffindor Seeker is diving has he found the Snitch?"

"I don't know," James said skeptically, "That plan depends a lot on Snape following us. What if he doesn't? We'll have gone through all this trouble for nothing."

"What other choice to we have?" James shrugged.

"Barnes reaches…almost there…"

"Are we agreed?" Sirius asked. The others nodded.

"BARNES CAUGHT THE SNITCH! What a catch! Gryffindor wins!" The Gryffindors went wild, yelling and cheering could probably be heard for miles. James, Sirius, Angela and Lily took a moment to finally realize what was going on and joined in on the celebrating.

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A/N: I'm not very good at the whole Quidditch announcing thing so bear with me. I know this chapter is kind of short. You see the problem is that I have many of the events of this story, all the way past 7th year, already planned out in my mind, but there are a lot of places where I have to fill in the blanks to make it more plausible. This chapter is one of those fill in the blank chapters. Anyway, I hope you liked it. Please Review!

Thanks to…

Someone- Thank you for reviewing! I got that whole bookworm vibe from Remus, too, maybe it's because I've read so many stories where he has been a bookworm. But, if hadn't been stealing the potion, he would have had to help create the distraction, namely yelling at the Professor. I had a hard time seeing our young Lupin actually shouting at a professor, so he had to be the one to take the potion. I also think that sometimes people underestimate him, myself especially. He was after all, a Marauder. I fully intend to explore the many sides of Remus Lupin. ;-)

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters

You are all awesome! Keep it up!

Until Next Time…

Ebony Ice


	15. Remus Returns

A/N: I'm sorry that I'm taking so long to update this story, but things have been a little hectic the past few months. Anyway, I made it my New Year's Resolution to finish this story before 2005 rolls around. I have the next 2 ½ chapters written and all I have to do is type them up and revise a little bit. This chapter is very short, but it does have a purpose, I promise!

Disclaimer: I think you know by now.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 15- Remus Returns

"Remus!" Angela said as she stepped through the portrait hole into the nearly empty Gryffindor common room. Remus, who had been lying awkwardly in an armchair, raised his head with great effort. "When did you get back?"

"Just a little bit ago. Where is everyone else?"

"They're down in the Great Hall celebrating. Gryffindor won." Remus plopped his head back down and Angela looked at him worriedly. "You don't look so good Remus. What's the matter?"

"Er…I'm just a little tired I guess."

"Liar." Remus raised his head immediately. **She couldn't know…** "You're upset about your grandmother, aren't you?" Remus sighed and laid down his head.

"Yeah." Truth be told, Remus' grandmother had died years ago, he had never even met her. He felt bad about lying, but what choice did he have? Angela sat down in the chair next to him.

"I'm sorry Remus." Remus felt guilt rush over him. He was lying through his teeth to her and everyone else and she felt sorry for him.

"So why aren't you down stairs celebrating?" Remus asked, changing the subject.

"I'm kind of tired and I just wanted to kind of sit down and relax for a few minutes before everyone comes back." They sat in silence for a moment, neither knowing what to say. They hadn't never really spent any time alone together and so it was a bit awkward for them both. Remus' mind began to wander, but Angela took a good look at Remus and was almost panicked by what she saw. He looked worn down and she could scratches on the side of his face, like an animal had attacked him.

"Remus, do you have a dog?" Remus looked up bewildered, he hadn't been expecting that.

"Er…"

"REMUS, old boy! You're back!" Sirius shouted as he stepped through the portrait hole followed by clumps of other Gryffindors.

"Hello Sirius." Remus smiled, relieved.

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A/N: I think I'm still upset about Book 5 and I am actually beginning to repress it.

Thanks to…

I give it all to Mr. Black

Someone

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters

You are all awesome! Keep it up!

Until Next Time…

Ebony Ice


	16. Breakfast Interrogations

A/N: Here's the next chapter! Yay! Unfortunately, I back to school tomorrow and might yet again become busy. I know, I know, I just had a whole vacation to write and I didn't do a whole lot, but hey, what can you do?

Disclaimer: Oh the things that would be different if I were in charge.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 16-Breakfast Interrogations

Over the next week Angela watched Remus very closely and he did show some signs of improvement, though they were very slight.  Angela began to really worry about him, what was wrong with him? Was he always like this? She couldn't tell anymore, she had never paid that close attention to him. She felt bad about admitting that but it was true. What kind of friend was she?

Angela decided that she couldn't be the only one to have noticed Remus' strange behavior; she decided to get another opinion.

"Good morning, James. Sirius." She greeted as she sat down for breakfast across from them. James and Sirius were the only two up yet.

She waited for a moment to begin her questioning, while she quickly piled some eggs and sausage on her plate. Then, she carefully and quietly began.

"Have either of you noticed how, well, ill Remus always looks? Lately, I mean."  James and Sirius looked at each other and shrugged. "Oh come now, you have to have noticed."

"Well," James answered, "I suppose now that you mention it, he does seem a bit under the weather."

"Don't you find it a bit odd?"

"No," Sirius answered rather loudly, "Some people are just like that, you know, sickly." He then shoved a piece of toast in his mouth.

"Still, it just doesn't seem right. I mean, I thought back on it and…doesn't it seem like every time he starts to get a bit better, he suddenly gets worse? And then…" she cut off, not sure if she should tell them about the scratches, she knew that they had probably seen them, but she suddenly felt stupid for even worrying about it.

"What?" James asked. Angela took a deep breath.

"It's just that…when he came home from his grandmother's funeral he looked…" she shuddered, "…awful."

"Give him a break why don't you? His grams did just die, didn't she?" Sirius said.

"Yeah, but it's not just that…those scratches…you must have seen them." Sirius snorted.

"Maybe he has a cat. Maybe his grandma has a cat. Maybe she beat the cat and so it's mean. Maybe it's enchanted by her spirit, come back all angry over being dead. Maybe…"

"Alright, I get the picture!" Angela said cutting him off.

"Look, the point is…"

"_You_ have a point?" James snickered.

"That's a first." Angela added.

"Yes, I have a point! Now to get on with it…the point is that you really have no idea what could have happened. It could be a fairly simple thing."

"Like his grandmother came back from the dead, reincarnated into her cat just to scratch Remus' face?"

"The point was…"

"There he goes again!" Sirius ignored James and kept going.

"…that it was probably from a pet of some sort, no need to worry." Angela nodded.

"It just seems…off, somehow." She said.

"Here's your chance to ask him." James said looking over Angela's shoulder. Remus and Lily walked over to the Gryffindor table and took a seat on either side of Angela. The group was quiet for a moment and then Sirius cleared his throat to cue Angela.

"Errr…Remus, can I, we, ask you something?" Remus lowered his fork and lent his attention. Somehow he had a feeling this was not going to be good. "We were just wondering…"

"She wants to know what's the matter with you Remus." Sirius said, he had no patience for beating around the bush. Students around them stopped eating for a moment and stared at them. Sirius seemed not to notice, but Remus grew a shade or two paler as the group stared at him. Angela noticed this and when everyone when back to their business she tried to explain a bit better.

"It's just that you look a little ill lately, well, actually, it's not just lately. And those scratches…what happened?" Remus didn't know what to say, he should have been expecting this.

"The scratches are from my cat, it never really liked me much." Sirius shot Angela a superior look. "Also, you're right, I haven't been feeling that well. In fact, I think I need to go…lie down for a bit." Remus got up from the table, breakfast barely touched and hurried away. This satisfied most of their curiosities, but Angela still wasn't convinced. She couldn't explain it; Remus' story was fine…it was just a feeling. She wouldn't drop it, couldn't drop it. For now she would give him peace, but this wasn't over, not by a long shot.

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A/N: I know it's a little short, but this is as long as it needed to be. Don't worry the next one will be longer…I think. Well, see I have the next chapter and a half basically written and it's interesting because they can actually be flipped chronologically. One revolves around Remus, Sirius, James, Lily and Angela, the other around Cassandra and Peter. It really doesn't matter which one comes first. So I don't know which one you guys are going to get next. In other words, I don't know how long the next chapter will be. J Anyway, Please review!

Thanks to…

remluvr- I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far. I hope you liked this chapter!

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters

You are all awesome! Keep it up!

Until Next Time…

Ebony Ice


	17. Sessions with Hagrid

A/N: My computer erased this chapter and the next chapter. I was not amused. Actually it encoded them, you know, with those little blank box things that show up in the place of letters. Anyway, I tried everything to recover the chapters, but alas, it was to no avail. Oh well…stuff happens. For the record, I'm not very good with accents, so if Hagrid's seems a little off, sorry J 

Disclaimer: Still not mine. 

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 17- Sessions with Hagrid 

One might wonder what ever happened to Cassandra and Peter. To be honest, they spent most of their time studying, which certainly helped their grades. Unfortunately, it did little to stimulate their sense of fun. 

However, no matter what happened, Cassandra refused to have anything to do with the Snape prank, she didn't even want to hear about it. At least she still had Peter; at least she wasn't completely alone.

Besides studying, they also went to visit Hagrid from time to time, at least that was never boring.

"Hagrid, why don't you just get yourself a _normal_ pet?" Cassandra asked angrily. She Peter and Hagrid had just spent the past fifteen minutes chasing some sort of pixies around after Hagrid had unleashed them on his hut.

"They're not pets exactly," Hagrid grumbled, as he tried to keep his eye on one of the pixies, " Besides, what d'you call normal?"

"Probably things that don't tear down your house," Peter said, ducking as one flew right over his head, "Or decapitate you."

"They're not tryn' ter hurt you, it's jus' their nature."

"My point exactly!" Cassandra said as she dived for one of the pixies, catching it, but falling over a chair in the process. 

"Are you alright, Cassie?" Peter asked. She mumbled a sarcastic 'wonderful' as she picked herself up and threw the pixie back in it's cage.

"Maybe you could get something with a…gentler nature." Cassandra said.

"Where's the fun in that?" Hagrid asked. He had nearly caught up to the last pixie, he reached and…CRASH! He and Peter collided. Hagrid was merely surprised, but Peter was knock onto the floor. Luckily, Cassandra wasn't far away and was able to catch the pixie as it had stopped to giggle at Hagrid and Peter.

After putting the pixies away, the three sat themselves down anywhere they could in the wreckage once know as Hagrid's hut.

"Sooo…what seems ter be the trouble Cassandra? Yer a bit more agitated than usual." Hagrid asked.

"Nothing's wrong with me, I'm just not partial to running around after pixies."

"She's mad at those kids we told you about." Peter said at the same time.

"Oh…" Hagrid said, "What have they done ter you now?" Cassandra stuck up her nose.

"Nothing, they're just immature, like always!"

"They don't talk to us anymore." Peter said.

"Too busy with their little pr…project." Cassandra added, stopping herself before she said 'prank'. They hadn't told Hagrid what exactly James and the gang were up to; they would probably be in a lot of trouble if anyone found out.

"I thought you said you didn't want ter be part of their project."

"Well…I don't, but that doesn't mean we have to stop talking to each other does it. I mean what are we supposed do while they're off doing…whatever it is they do?"

"You could make new friends." Hagrid suggested.

"Hagrid, they're the only other Gryffindors in our year. They're the only ones we really spend anytime with at all." Cassandra crossed her arms over her chest. "Besides, it's a little late to make new friends."

"That's a load a cadswallop an' you know it!" Hagrid said forcefully. "It's never to late ter make new friends." Cassandra begged to differ.

"Look, everyone's already in their little 'cliques' now. I thought I had found my group, but I was wrong, so what's the point in looking for a new one? They're all the same." Hagrid gave her a stern look.

"Well, that's your choice then, not this 'James Potter's'." Cassandra glared at him. She knew he was right, she was being stubborn. She didn't have friends because she chose not to. Somewhere in the back of her mind a voice kept telling her, no friends, no trouble. It sounded suspiciously like her grams. Hagrid slapped his hands together, signaling an end to the conversation.

"So! Who's up for some rock cakes?" Peter and Cassandra groaned. 

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A/N: I think I'm losing my mind, I had to write this chapter twice and both times I tried spelling 'wonder' as 'oneder'. Fun stuff. Anyway, I hope you liked it! Please review!

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters

You are all awesome! Keep it up! 


	18. Trouble in Paradise

A/N: I have no idea if the English even sing Jingle Bells. I was shocked to hear Hermione say 'happy' Christmas rather than 'merry'. Shows how much I know about other countries. L Oh well. 

Disclaimer: STILL not mine. 

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 18- Trouble in Paradise 

Christmas was still almost a whole month away, but all the students were beginning to get anxious anyway. The air was full of excitement around Hogwarts. Probably in part thanks to Sirius' constant rendition of Jingle Bells. Almost everywhere you went there was someone yelling him to stop all that racket and that it was too early for carols. However, for the most part these reprimanding shouts were more habitual than angry, in general people were in a fairly good mood. Besides, it was never a full day if Sirius hadn't gotten yelled at for _something_.

Even Remus, who had been a little paranoid, was in a particularly relaxed mood. His birthday had come and left and to his surprise, he actually enjoyed it. He had never had a truly good birthday before. He told everyone to not even bother with it, but of course, they didn't listen. They had a mini party for him in the boys' dormitories (Angela and Lily snuck in) with plenty of candy and cauldron cakes provided by James and Sirius. Remus didn't know where they came from and he didn't ask, but he had a sneaking suspicion that they were swiped from a couple of 3rd years. Even Peter and Cassandra wished him a happy birthday; he hadn't seen much of them lately.

Angela, however, was the most insistent on Remus having a good birthday. In fact, she had been a lot friendlier and attentive to him lately. He didn't really mind, she was a lot of fun to be around, it was just…weird. In fact that is probably where his paranoia came from, that and her interrogations of him. 

The rest of the group didn't seem to notice this change, they were to busy with constant pranks. Snape was no longer their main focus; they were saving the _big_ prank for him. Now their pranks were focused on the Slytherins as a whole. The Slytherins couldn't even keep up with the dung bombs, you could now literally _smell_ when a Slytherin was near. It made for a great joke between the other three houses. As for 'the BIG prank', all the particulars had been worked out, now all they had to do was wait.

All in all, thing were going pretty well for the group. That is until one Potions class…

Professor Craig walked swiftly in with an air of anger, not just anger but fury, a silent rage. The class was immediately silenced.

"I'm sure…" Craig spoke quietly, but deadly, "…that I do not need to express to any of you the grave consequences of theft." Nervous whispering broke out among the students.

"SILENCE!" He looked as if he was only barely able to hold his temper.

"I have had a very advanced, _very dangerous _potion stolen from my private supply." James and Sirius shot each other 'oh-uh' looks and quickly turned back to Craig. This look went unnoticed by the teacher, but not by Cassandra. "I know it was a student or more likely a group of students who took it. I present this to all my classes in hopes that there is some honesty left at this school. I suggest that if ANY of you have information about this terrible crime, you report it immediately because I will find out and if I have to seek out the guilty party, the punishment will be ten times worse. I will give you time to come forward, but not much. If no one has confessed by Monday of next week, I shall begin to search dormitories. In the meantime, there will be no parcels sent out by students nor given to students unchecked!" He looked around, as if to scare them a bit more. "Are we clear?" Some students nodded their heads, most just stayed still. "I said, ARE WE CLEAR!"

"Yes, Professor." The class answered, quickly this time.

"Do you reckon he knows it was us?" Lily asked quietly once they had settled in a corner of the Gryffindor common room.

"If he knew we'd be gone already." Remus answered tiredly. No more smooth sailing he supposed.

"Not if he wanted to toy with us. Make us suffer before he expels us." James said.

"I wouldn't put it past Craig." Sirius said irritably.

"So it was you then." The group turned around to find Cassandra glaring at them with Peter right behind her. "I had my suspicions, but until just now I wasn't sure."

"Sshhhh! Do you want to get us expelled?" Sirius asked angrily.

"Well, it' not as if you're being that discreet about it. I mean I was able to walk right up to you and listen to your conversation, unnoticed."

"She right," Remus agreed, "we really should be more careful."

"So it is true then?" Cassandra said, a bit lower this time.

"You can't tell anyone! We would be in so much trouble if you did!" James said hurriedly.

"It's your own fault thought, isn't it?" Peter jumped in, "I mean you took it. And Professor Craig said it was dangerous!"

"It's not that dangerous, it's just a truth potion!" Lily replied.

"Lily!" James said angrily.

"What?" James just rolled his eyes.

"You're not going to tell on us, are you?" Remus asked. Craig already hated him, he didn't need more reason.

"I don't know," Cassandra replied.

"You can't!" James cried.

"Well, I don't like what you're doing. Then again, I don't want you to get in trouble."

"So just pretend that you don't know anything." Angela said simply. "Best all around really."

"Yeah, what you don't know can't hurt us." Sirius added, "Or something like that." He tapered off and then got lost in thought and Angela just shook her head amazed by Sirius' complete lack of attention span.

"I've got to go. Coming Peter?" Cassandra and Peter stalked out of the common room. Lily sighed.

"Let's face it, even if they don't tell anyone, Craig is going figure it out."

"Yeah, he's going to search our dormitories." Remus added wearily.

"Well, we'll just have to speed up our time table, won't we?" Sirius said. He didn't seem too bothered by this idea.

"But what about all our plans, we worked so hard!" James whined.

"Oh please!" Lily exclaimed. "All we did was sit around and talk about it. Not that hard."

"Well, it _seemed_ like a lot of work!"

"And if we want to do this prank, we _have_ to do it before Monday." Angela added. 

"When?" Remus asked quietly.

"It has to be this weekend." Angela replied.

"How? There's no Quidditch. What do you suggest us do? Prank in the middle of the Great Hall?" James asked sarcastically. The others looked at him and he raised an eyebrow. _The Great Hall?_   
  


Cassandra couldn't believe them! "One would think that if they wanted us to keep their secret, they would be a little nicer!" she said to Peter.

"I didn't think they were being mean."

"Not mean, just rude!" Peter shrugged. Cassandra sighed. What could she do? What if Craig found out that she knew about this and she was expelled? Her grams would kill her! She couldn't turn them in though, could she?   
  


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A/N: I'm watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone right now. I flipped on HBO and there it was, I couldn't resist. I didn't really like the movies though. I mean they were good movies to be sure, but they just can't beat the books and so in that way, they're a little disappointing. Plus, with books you have a bit more freedom of imagination, the movies kind of drain that imagination because they're all someone else's vision. At any rate, I'll stop my little tangent. Please review!

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters

You are all awesome! Keep it up! 


	19. Paranoia

A/N: I feel very, very sick. Not good. Anyway, please read and review. Above all I hope you enjoy! 

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Harry Potter, it's characters, places, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 19-Paranoia 

As the weekend drew closer, the young pranksters quickly grew uneasy. Craig was crankier than usual and Cassandra kept eying them as if still trying to make up her mind. And even though they now had a new plan for the prank, it was still far more risky than the last and it is likely that their guilt would be slightly more conspicuous. They were in a lot of trouble and there was no way out.

They became suspicious of everyone and everything. They were constantly glimpsing around while talking to each other, even when the conversation had nothing to do with the prank. Most unfortunately they had decided to put their other pranks on pause and trying to remain on their best behavior to avoid arousing any suspicions. Unfortunately, this was not their normal conduct and so it brought on even more suspicions. Professor McGonagall had even suggested to Sirius that he ought to see Madam Pomfrey after he held a door for her.

"We can't go on like this much longer!" Sirius complained. He was sitting with James and Remus in the common room.

"We have no choice," Remus said, glancing around to make sure no one was around, "One wrong move and we're dead!"

"But it's so _boring_ being good! Can't we just play one prank?"

"NO!" James and Remus shouted.

"But…" Sirius was silenced when the door to the common room opened, but no one came through. "Who's there?" Sirius asked. The door slammed shut again.

"Who do you think it is you big dolt!" said Angela as she removed James' Invisibility Cloak from her and Lily. Sirius shot her a nasty look.

"What did you find out?" Remus asked.

"Nothing, I don't think they're going to tell." Lily answered. They had been taking turns following Cassandra and Peter around, trying to find out whether they were going to tell Craig or not. A bit intrusive, yes, but in their minds, necessary. "If they haven't gone to him yet, I don't think they will."

"But do you know for sure?" James asked.

"Well, not for sure," Lily answered, "but…I think we should just stop. I don't feel right about following them around all the time."

"Yeah, besides it gets rather hot being under the cloak all the time." Angela added while pulling her hair back in a ponytail.

"Hey James, I just had a thought." Sirius said suddenly.

"Did you hurt yourself?" Angela asked.

"Ha ha! I'm trying to be serious for a moment. Angela thought about adding another 'serious Sirius' joke, just to see him get riled up, but Sirius began again to quickly. "Are you sure that there aren't a bunch of people with these cloaks? I mean someone could be spying on us right now and we'd never know it."

"These things are too old, they don't make them anymore. I wouldn't doubt if I was the only one in all of Hogwarts to have one."

"But how can you be sure?" He asked

"Well…I can't I suppose…" The group looked around the common room suspiciously.

"No, it couldn't be!" Remus protested after a minute. "I mean...these things are really rare."

"But not one of a kind!" Sirius insisted.

"Why in the world would anyone spy on us? It's ridiculous!" Lily said, not feeling quite as assured she sounded.

"To find out about the prank." Sirius said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. James looked around and drew them in a little closer.

"Look, I don't think it's very likely," he whispered, "but maybe just to satisfy Sirius we should take a look around."

"Err…James, what good will taking a _look _around be if they're invisible?" Lily asked.

"Simple, we spread out walk around the common room and if we hit anything that we can't see we'll know then, won't we."

"It's not like they can't just move James." Angela said.

"Not very fast though and like you said, it gets real hot under there. Maybe we can wear them out. We just have to…run a little." James waited for objections, but none came. So they slowly came out of their huddle and glanced around once more. "NOW!" James yelled and the group began running around the common room like maniacs, trying to uncover the 'spy' Sirius had planted in their heads. Even stranger, Sirius began yelling as though he were running straight into battle. It was the first bit of fun he'd had in days. Unfortunately for him, it had to come to an end.

"WHAT IN BLAZES IS GOING ON IN HERE?!" said a 5th year prefect as she stepped through the common room door. James thought her name was something like Molly…Fredrick. Everyone immediately stopped in their places.

"We were just…err…"James laughed a bit. He had no answer; the whole thing seemed a bit silly now.

"OUT!" She yelled, "NOW!" They made their way out of the come room slowly, feeling a bit embarrassed. Sirius smacked James upside the head.

"Nice going!"

"Me!" James exclaimed.

"It was your idea!"

"You're the one who brought it up!"

"Boys! Boys! Please!" Angela said. "Enough! We're all to blame, Sirius for bringing it up, James for planning it and the rest of us for following it. It's nearly time for our next class anyway"

"Oh great! Just what we need, Potions!" Lily sighed, the weekend seem just too far away.   
  


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A/N: I have no idea what Molly Weasly's last name was before she got married, nor do I know her house, year at this time or if she was ever a prefect, but hey. A writer has the right to improvise. I feel like I'm just talking to myself anymore and I have no idea if anyone is even reading this story anymore, please review!

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters

You are all awesome! Keep it up! 


	20. The Best Laid Plans

A/N: The Snape prank is finally here! 

Disclaimer: I own few characters, no places, but the plot is in fact mine. Yay! 

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 20-The Best Laid Plans…

The day had come, after all the planning and re-planning, the day had finally come. It was almost surreal for the five conspirators. It was almost like they never expected the day to really come and now that it had they felt…unprepared. This was to be one of the biggest pranks seen in years and they were just 1st years, how could they really be pulling this off?

The plan was to do it in the Great Hall at breakfast. First they had to do was distract the teachers, most importantly Craig, lure them out, without getting caught in the act. Easier said than done.

While everyone else was in the Great Hall, eating breakfast Angela, Sirius and Remus were placing Filibuster fireworks and dungbombs in one of the longest hallways in the school where MOST of the professors' offices were located. The plan was that they would quickly set off their little 'presents' and then run for it. What they hoped would happen was that all the professors, hearing the fireworks and Filch's screaming, would hurry out of the Hall to see what was happening. At the same time, James and Lily would be trying to figure out a way to sneak the potion into Snape's drink. That was the best-case scenario. They didn't even want to think of what the worst-case scenario would be.

"I have never been a part of a dumber plan!" Angela whispered.

"And that's saying something!" Sirius added. Angela smacked him over the head and then went back to work.

"What are the chances that every single teacher will come running out of the Great Hall? I mean honestly!" she went on huffily.

"You didn't seem to such a problem with the plan when we first came up with it."

"I didn't exactly have time to consider it's absolute stupidity."

"Hey, not our fault you're slow on the uptake." SMACK! "Ow! What was that for?" Angela rolled her eyes and muttered,

"And he calls _me_ slow!" Remus shushed them.

"Would you two please shut up! We haven't got all that much time you know, breakfast doesn't last forever!" Sirius waved his hand dismissively.

"The professors always take a long time!"

"Yeah, but prefects don't." Sirius shrugged. They finished and admired their work for a moment.

"Soooo…how are we going to set them _all_ off before anyone catches us?" Angela asked. Remus and Sirius were speechless; they hadn't thought of that.

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In the Great Hall, Lily and James were having problems of their own. How on earth were they going to slip the potion into Snape's drink without a teacher seeing? Somehow it seemed a bit more difficult than it had when they had first talked about it.

"What if we…" James whispered.

"No." Lily answered while at the professors hopelessly. James looked crestfallen, but then puffed up again.

"How about…"

"No."

"But if we just…"

"No, no, no. This just isn't going to work." Lily whispered. "Why don't we just wait for the uh…distraction."

"It won't take long for some of the professors to come back to watch over us. It leaves us less time to interrogate Snape."

"But James, I just don't see how this is going to work. I mean it would be a little obvious if we just walked over to Snape and poured something into his drink, don't you think?" Lily looked back at James, but he didn't appear to be paying attention. Instead he was looking at the Hufflepuff's and grinning. "What?" James picked up his spoon and took a big scoop of cheese scrambled eggs.

"Just watch!" He looked around to make sure no one was looking. He turned the spoon around, catapult style and flung it toward a Hufflepuff 6th year sitting nearly across from James. The eggs seemed to stay in midair forever, but finally landed on the back of the boy's head. James quickly set his spoon down and tried to look innocent. The boy stood and turned around, looking for the culprit. James quickly smashed the foot of a 2nd year who happened to be sitting next to him.

"Hey! You dumb prat!" the boy yelled standing up as well. The Hufflepuff misinterpreted the boy's cry and in an instant the 2nd year, wide-eyed and thunderstruck was hit in the face with a _handful_ of eggs. The Great Hall had gone silent. Before anyone could even speak, the 2nd year picked up a handful of potatoes and threw it at the Hufflepuff. The potatoes scattered and hit various other Hufflepuff along with the 6th year. Before the professors could take even the slightest action to prevent it, the students of Hogwarts were in an all-out food fight. The professors did hurry to try to stop the fiasco, but it was too late.

James grinned at Lily and tried to talk over the noise. "Where there's a will, there's a way!"  James, with the potion, dodged past flying breakfasts and hurried over to the Slytherin table, which had been abandoned in favor of getting really into the fight. Lucky for James, he had noted which cup had been Snape's before the fight had broken out. He opened the vial and poured it into Snape's goblet. That was it, now they just had to sit back and wait. James returned to the Gryffindor table to find Lily tossing anything she could get her hands on. Apparently she had been hit.

"STOP IT RIGHT THIS INSTANT!" Professor McGonagall yelled with a voice louder than any person should have been able to yell. This gave Lily a sudden idea. Surprisingly, all the student ceased. "I HAVE _NEVER_, IN ALL MY YEARS SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS! YOU WILL RETURN TO YOUR SEATS RIGHT NOW!" The messy students scurried back into their seats. McGonagall was not someone to be messed with, especially not when she was angry and boy was she angry! James wasn't worried though, it's not like she could really do anything to them. Returning to her normal voice, McGonagall continued, "Fifty points from Gryffindor!" Maybe she could, James gulped. "My own house, I wouldn't have believed it! As for the rest of the houses, I'm sure the Heads of your houses will deal with you later. For now, everyone finish your breakfast in silence!" The students did not dare disobey. 

James and Lily stared at Snape expectantly, waiting for him to take a sip. However, Snape did not pick the goblet up. Instead a boy they knew by Lucius Malfoy picked the goblet up and brought it to his mouth…

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A/N: Hmmmm…what do you think? Next chapter is nearly finished…I think. Please review!

Thanks to… 

tara – I'm glad you like the story so far! I am trying to get chapters up quick!

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters

I appreciate it.


	21. Prank Surprise

A/N: The Snape prank continues!

Disclaimer: If I owned them, I wouldn't be writing fan fiction.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 21- Prank Surprise

 Malfoy took a swig of the concoction, completely unaware of the effects that would take him over in just a moment. Lily and James watched, absolutely stunned. They couldn't decide whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. 

Seconds later, Snape turned to Malfoy and grabbed the goblet away from him and said something that looked very nasty, which neither Lily nor James could hear. They imagined it went something like 'that's my cup, you prat!' However, Malfoy seemed unfazed by this, he looked like he was in a complete state of relaxation. Snape turned away from him and took a big gulp from the goblet as well.

This ought to be interesting, Lily thought, almost apprehensive of the situation. She thought on it no more however because from outside the Hall there was a sudden crash and a sound, like dozens fireworks being shot off at once. 

Almost immediately, Filch came rushing through the doors, howling about all sorts of things. However, James and Lily were the only ones to notice that the doors to the Hall stayed suspended open just a moment longer than they should have after Filch came through.

The professors were in a frenzy. A single dungbomb or firework was one thing, it was almost to be expected on a daily basis, but in the quantities that Filch described (though he may have exaggerated) was outrageous. Furthermore, to disturb the place where professors go to _get away_ from students and their antics was even worse. The professors ran out of the Great Hall, each to worried about the welfare of their own private quarters and catching the culprits to realize that there was no supervision left in the Hall. Dumbledore was the only one not to leave in a hurry, but even he, after hasty prodding by Filch, warily left.

There was silence for a moment as the students processed what had just happened and then there was a sudden burst of laughter from all corners of the Great Hall. Snape and Malfoy, however, were still as you please and both looked to be in a daze.

"It's now or never!" said Sirius, who was under the table, hiding in the Invisibility Cloak with Remus and Angela.

"We got Malfoy, too." James warned. Sirius grinned.

"Even better!" Cassandra, who was not far away listened closely to the group. So this was their big prank, she thought. No one noticed her scoot closer though; they were too caught up in the moment. 

Sirius and James decided to be the ones to sneak over to the Slytherin table, under the protection of the Invisibility Cloak, of course. The other students were still too busy laughing to pay any attention to the little first years' activities. 

"Wait!" Lily said before James and Sirius made their way across enemy line. She pointed her wand at Snape muttered 'Sonorus', and then did the same for Malfoy. "Now go!"

"What was that?" Angela asked Lily, reappearing from under the table.

"Oooh…just a little charm I picked up. You'll see!"

The laughter and chatter was dying done now. Students were beginning to turn back to their breakfasts. That's when the shout came. It was Sirius' voice, Angela, Lily and Remus could tell, no one else seemed to identify it however.

"SNAPE! HOW OFTEN DO YOU WASH YOUR HAIR?"

In a flat, but highly magnified voice, Snape answered, "ONCE A MONTH!" The students in the Great Hall nearly died with laughter. A second voice called out to Malfoy.

"Brilliant Charm, Lily!" Remus congratulated. Lily beamed.

"MALFOY, DO YOU DYE YOUR HAIR LIKE A GIRL?"

In the same flat tone, Malfoy answered, "YES!" The Great Hall erupted again.

"SNAPE, HAVE YOU EVER WET THE BED?"

"YES!

"RECENTLY?"

"YES!" Then the other students began screaming out questions.

"MALFOY, DO YOU KEEP A STUFFED ANIMAL?" Shouted a Ravenclaw.

"YES!"

"WHAT KIND?"

"A SNAKE!"

"Figures!" Remus remarked.

"WHAT COLOR IS IT?" Asked a Hufflepuff girl, who was very snooty indeed.

"PURPLE!" More laughter ensued.

"SNAPE, DO YOU PURPOSELY SUCK UP TO PROFESSOR CRAIG! OR DOES IT JUST COME NATURALLY?"

"PURPOSELY!"

"I knew it!" Angela exclaimed.

"MALFOY, DO YOU ALWAYS CRY LIKE A BABY TO YOUR MOMMY UNTIL GET YOUR WAY?"

"ALWAYS!"

"SNAPE! DO YOU PICK YOUR BIG, FAT, CROOKED NOSE?"

"YES!" The students made a collective 'Eeeewww' sound, but kept laughing.

"MALFOY, HAVE YOU EVER FANCIED SOMEONE IN A DIFFERENT HOUSE?"

"YES!"

"WHO?"

"BIANCA BLACK!" 

The Ravenclaw table gasped and Bianca had the urge to vomit in her breakfast. Sirius, too, was upset and decided to kick Malfoy, but Malfoy didn't even make a noise signifying pain.

"SNAPE, IS IT TRUE YOU WHERE GIRLS KNICKERS?"

"NO!" James slapped the back of Sirius' head.

"What did you ask that for?" Sirius shrugged.

"Just curious. It made sense to me."

"MALFOY…"

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE?" It was Craig, come to ruin the fun. Lily muttered 'Quietus' undoing the charm on Malfoy and Snape, just before they answered Craig's question, not that they actually knew what was going on. The Hall was dead silent. James and Sirius snuck back to the Gryffindor table without a noise, took the Cloak off under the table and stashed it in James' bag.

"I believe I asked a question!" Craig said, no longer needing to shout. Someone shouted out, "It's Snape and Malfoy!" Craig rushed like a freight train toward the Slytherin table. "Mr. Snape, Mr., Malfoy, what is going on?" Craig demanded. Both Snape and Malfoy answered that they didn't know, but Craig could tell by their states what had happened and he was fuming. "Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Snape, follow me to my office!" They stood and followed him towards the door, but Craig stopped and turned.

"I will find out who did this! Mark my words! So I suggest that you enjoy your time at Hogwarts while you still can!" Then he turned in huff and stalked out, followed by Malfoy and Snape.

The returning professors ordered the students to their common rooms. No matter what happened, however, no one could stop talking about the prank. It was all anyone could think about.

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A/N: I had the hardest time trying to think up questions to have James and Sirius ask. I was surprised, I thought that would have been the easy part. Actually, I went to fictionalley.org and asked for help with ideas. I only got one post, but it did help. Originally, before I even started writing this story I had Malfoy liking Angela, but I decided against it. I have a new plan. Please review!

Thanks to… 

desicow - (tara?) Thanks for reviewing! I'm happy to know you're enjoying my story! I hope you liked this chapter as well.

Someone – Thanks for reviewing! Glad to have you back! I'm sorry that I took so long getting chapters up, things just kind of got busy for a while and fan fiction floated to the back of my mind and got lost. I'm back now though!

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters and also the good people at fictionalley.

I appreciate everything.


	22. Aftermath

A/N: New chapter! I'm on a roll! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: HP is not mine, so don't ask.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 22-Aftermath 

The students returned to their common rooms and went about their day. There was something different than normal Saturdays. The air was full of excitement and gossip. 

"Who pulled the prank?"

"Did you hear Malfoy? He has a crush on a Ravenclaw!"

"So much for the exclusive Slytherin thing!"

"What's Craig gonna do?"

"Do you think he'll find out?"

Now the young pranksters weren't quite fool enough to go around bragging, though it was tempting. They claimed a corner of the common room and chatted on and on about their accomplishment.

"Can you believe it?" Sirius said excitedly. "We've just pulled off one of the biggest pranks of the year. No…scratch that…I bet it was the biggest prank ever!"

"I must admit, that this is one of the best days ever!" said James.

"Yeah, until Craig comes and expels us." Lily added darkly.

"He'll never prove it. None of the students even know who did it and they were present at the time!" Sirius reassured.

"Except Cassandra." Remus interjected.

"And Peter." Lily added. Sirius waved this off.

"That won't be a problem. If they haven't told yet, they won't. Especially since they kind of let it happen." Neither Lily nor Remus were convinced, but soon forgot their troubles as they joined Sirius, James and Angela in celebrating. They sat around the common room talking with others about the day's events with other students, secretly soaking up the praise that their fellow Gryffindors were placed upon the anonymous pranksters.

Unfortunately, their glory could only last for so long as Craig immediately began his pursuit of the guilty parties. He began interrogating students, one by one, using his intimidating presence as an ally and who else would he think to begin with other than the Gryffindors? 

"He told me that he knew who did it and that he knew I knew as well and that he would go easy on me if admitted it now." Remus was listening to a third year tell the tale of his encounter with Craig. "He said that he would tell my mum on me and when he had 'apprehended the guilty faction' he would have expelled."

"I wouldn't worry about it too much." Sirius said coming up behind Remus, putting his elbow on Remus' shoulder. "If he really thought that you knew something, you'd be expelled already."

"I thought the same thing, besides, I don't know who did it. If I did, I'd be congratulating them. I never did like that Malfoy boy." Sirius grinned happily.

"Hey what's wrong with Cassandra?" Lily whispered to Angela. Cassandra was sitting all by herself in a corner of the common room and she looked almost in tears. Angela shrugged.

"Who knows? Maybe she didn't get a perfect on an essay." Lily rolled her eyes and made her way to Cassandra, Angela reluctantly followed.

"Hey Cassandra," Lily began gently, "what's wrong?" Cassandra sniffed.

"Oh nothing, my grandmother's just going to kill, no big deal."

"Why?" Lily asked incredulously.

"Because of Craig."

"You're worried about that old goat? Pssh." Angela said. "He's been threatening everyone in Gryffindor."

"But I'm the only one who knows anything." Cassandra said, a bit quieter.

"You didn't tell him, did you?" Angela asked suddenly. Lily stared at her.

"Angela!"

"What?"

"No, I didn't tell anyone." Cassandra said begrudgingly. Lily continued to glare at Angela.

"Look! I'm sorry, really…but you can understand how I would be worried, can't you? We would be in a lot of trouble if Craig found out."

"Well, I'm in a lot of trouble already all because I was protecting _you_!" Cassandra replied angrily.

"No, you're not. Craig's been questioning everyone, trying to scare us into a confession." Said James who appeared behind Lily. "I've just been there, he's tough." Lily and Angela looked at him questioningly. "No need to worry, I'm tougher."

"Good going, James" Angela congratulated. 

"Speaking of which, Angela, he wants to see you next." Angela gulped nervously, but turned with her head up and marched out of the common room, toward what, in her opinion, might as well have been the guillotine.

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A/N: How was it? Do you like it? Please review!

Thanks to… 

Someone – My most faithful reviewer, I thank you. *bows*. Thanks also for reminding me that yesterday was my one-year fic anniversary. J I knew that 1-19 looked familiar, but I couldn't place it. As for the whole slash question thing…it had entered my mind. ;-) But, I decided this wasn't meant to be a slashy story, sorry. Besides…I'm more of a Sirius/Remus girl myself.

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters.


	23. Fear, Guilt and Dark Discoveries

A/N: I enjoyed writing this chapter immensely, I've been waiting to write it for a long time.

Disclaimer: I'm not rich; I think that about answers all questions about whether I have any affiliation with the Harry Potter franchise. It also answers whether it is worth it to sue me. Maybe you'd get a coffee mug.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 23-Fear, Guilt and Dark Discoveries 

Angela was escorted to Craig's office by a snobbish Slytherin prefect and told to stay outside and wait until the Professor was finished grilling the student he was currently in conference with. Of course, Angela did just as she was told; she stayed _right _outside the door.

She felt a lump in her throat as she heard Professor Craig yelling…no not just yelling…_screaming_! She couldn't even hear what was being said, she wasn't even sure if Craig was speaking English at this point. All she could tell was that Craig sounded livid. She felt a stab of pity for the poor fool, but soon forgot it when she realized that in just a few short moments _she_ would be the poor fool.

She inched closer to the door, hoping to get an idea of what she would be in for, but still Craig's words blended together into one long tirade. Then she heard another voice say something very nasty and before she knew what was happening, the door was flung open and she found herself face to face with Remus.

She couldn't believe it, his face was flushed and he looked so…_angry_! Remus never looked angry.

"Don't you dare walk away from me boy!" Craig roared, but Remus ignored him and Angela could see the anger fade and tears form in his eyes. Remus stepped around her and began running away, but Craig followed him.

"Miss Pierce wait in my office!" Craig shouted back.

"But…"

"In my office! Now!" Craig demanded. "And shut the door! I must speak privately with Mr. Lupin." Angela hesitantly entered Craig's office and shut the door; she didn't want to make any more trouble. The shouting continued outside the door, but Angela paid no attention to it. She was too busy wondering what Craig could possibly have said to upset Remus like that. Remus was not a hotheaded person, Sirius yes, James occasionally. She could even see herself in that position, but Remus? Now she was really worried.

Angela was brought out of her musing when something on Craig's desk caught her eye. It was a file with Remus Lupin's name printed on the tab. She assumed that they must be his school records.

That's odd…she thought…one would think wizards would have a more advanced form of keeping track of students records than just a folder. She supposed she still had much to learn about the magical world.

She could still hear Craig out in the hall and her curiosity peaked. If those were Remus' school records…they would probably have information on Remus' illness or whatever it was that made him look so worn out and sick all the time. What if she just took a quick peek? She debated for a moment and in the end her curiosity won. She figured that Craig was still busy with Remus, poor guy, so she would have time to look real quick and put the file back.

She crept over to the desk, not that Craig would have really heard her if she had simply marched up loudly up to it, but for some reason, she felt her nerves on edge and so she tried to be as careful as possible. She snatched up the file and opened it. She got a prickly feeling on the back of her neck that she thought was probably related to guilt, but dismissed it. She looked at the papers inside, they were very official looking, but she soon realized that they were not school records. The top said 'Dark Creature Registration'. Dark Creature? She thought and began to read on. Unfortunately, before she could find out anything more she was halted by the sound of the office door opening. She quickly closed the file and tossed back on Craig's desk. She stepped away just in time to see Craig stalk into the room and she quickly took a seat.

"I hope you understand, Miss Pierce, the severe consequences of eavesdropping." Craig seemed to have calmed down a bit, though he was still as hard and cold as ever. Angela said nothing; she was still reeling from what she had just read. "Ten house points from Gryffindor and let me just say that such behavior does not make you look innocent." Craig said seriously.

"What did you say to Remus to make him act like that?" She asked, she didn't know why, but it was important.

"Perhaps his guilty conscience has caught up with him." Craig said, clearly not happy about being spoken to in such an abrupt manner.

"Guilty of what?" she plowed on. Why not? What had she to lose? Well…besides her free time, house points, her marks, her admission to Hogwarts, her life if her mother found out… However, at that moment she didn't really think about that.

"I think you know very well." Angela shrugged.

"If you're talking about the 'incident' this morning… I don't think Remus had anything to do with it." She lied.

"Oh really? And would you happen to know who is responsible for the 'incident' as you would call it?" Craig was now looming over her, but she didn't look away from him. Her mind was in too many different places to worry about any one thing.

"Not really, but I don't see Remus as the type to do that sort of thing." Which if she hadn't seen him helping, she really might not believe him capable. She thought briefly that perhaps she underestimated him, then the file flashed through head once again.

"Perhaps you don't know him as well as you think you do." What did he mean by that? She wondered. Did it have something to do with the…Dark Creature thing? This time she said nothing.

"Miss Pierce, as I said before, you're behavior tonight has made you look less than innocent." Angela looked at him with shock.

"Now you think I did it? Professor, I must say, you seem a bit paranoid." Craig fumed.

"MISS PIERCE! I will not tolerate such disrespect! Now tell me, have you had any thing to do with this!" Craig looked positively fierce and for a moment, he struck fear in Angela. She drew back a little.

"No, I haven't." She answered quietly, but she felt that her protests would be useless. She felt like he could see right through her and she quickly lowered her head so he could not see into her eyes anymore.

"I'm a afraid I do not believe you." Angela felt a shiver run down her spine. She was busted. "Unfortunately, I cannot prove it," she looked up, surprised, "yet." She let out a deep breath; she was saved, for now at least. "But, mark my words, this isn't over and I shall be watching you and your friends. I _will_ catch you and when I do…you will wish that had just confessed." Craig's voice had grown quieter, but almost deadly. However, Angela held her head high. He had nothing on her, she knew it…he knew it.

"May I go now?" She asked, all the fear having been released from her body. Craig stared at her for a moment, as if debating something internally.

"Yes, but another twenty points from Gryffindor for insubordination." He said finally. Angela got up and walked to the door, but Craig spoke once more, stopping her in her place. "Do think about what I've said. Two students were humiliated today and that is not something I take lightly or that anyone should be proud of. Think about it." 

Angela nearly ran out the door, she couldn't take being in that room anymore. On her way out, she nearly ran into Sirius who was standing just outside. They shared a look and Angela murmured a 'good luck'. He was going to need it.

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A/N: Soooo…what do you think? Good? Yay/Nay. Please review!

Thanks to… 

Wydinel Sheergale- Don't worry, no one will be expelled. J I'm glad you liked the prank and I hope you like what is to come. 

Someone- I'm glad you're enjoying the most faithful reviewer title! J You deserve it. I hope you like this chapter as well!

Neoma- Thanks for reviewing! I 'm glad you like the story and I hope you like this chapter as well.

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters, it is most appreciated. 


	24. Late Night Research

A/N: Bogey=booger. I know that the English (at least in the Harry Potter movies) pronounce boogers as bogeys, though I wasn't sure if that was how they spelled it or not so I stuck to booger. In this story, I just decided to use bogey because it makes more sense for the way I'm using it. I really don't like the subject of boogers. Why is it in my story then? Inspiration works in mysterious ways.

Disclaimer: Mostly not mine, mostly.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 24-Late Night Research

Following the Craig interrogations, life pretty much went back to normal for most people. It seemed Craig still had no idea who had pulled the prank (even though he tried to make the students believe otherwise).

Cassandra and Peter had been accepted back into the fold after they both chose not to tell Craig about the prank. The others felt that they owed those two something in return for covering up the pranksters little escapade. Lily began spending time with Cassandra, they both enjoyed having another girl to chat with; Angela wasn't much of a chatter. 

The boys also began spending more time with each other. Actually, Sirius had been the one who started plotting pranks again, only this time his main focus was on Malfoy rather than Snape. The others suspected that this was because of Malfoy's crush on Sirius' cousin, but they didn't mention it. James, of course, jumped right in on the pranks and Peter followed.

On the other hand, Remus had become distant to them all since the night he stormed out of Craig's office. He would just sit near the others while they were planning pranks, but he didn't participate. He seemed to have a lot on his mind.

Angela also spent a lot of time just thinking. Just what had she seen that night? She didn't know. She didn't know anything about dark creatures, but she found it hard to believe Remus was one of them.

In the girls dormitory, Lily and Cassandra were yakking on and on about…something. Angela wasn't paying much attention. She was still lost in thoughts about Remus. She didn't know what to think anymore. Suddenly, she couldn't keep her thoughts to herself, she had to tell someone.

"What do you guys think of Remus?" She asked. Lily and Cassandra stopped and stared at her. It was a bit of an abrupt question. Lily raised her eyebrow.

"I don't know...he's nice I suppose. Why? What do _you_ think of him?" Lily asked pointedly. Angela rolled her eyes.

"Don't get the wrong idea," Angela said forcefully, "I just wanted to know if you found him to be a bit strange?"

"Strange? Not stranger than any other boy around here." Cassandra replied. Angela grew thoughtful again.

"Don't you think it's odd, though, how he's always leaving school and coming back sick and such?" Cassandra shrugged.

"He's had family issues. It happens."

"Yes, but I found…" Angela stopped. She didn't want to start and uproar about Remus. If he was a…dark creature, Angela was that it wasn't going to be well-received news. Then again…she knew that Cassandra had grown up in a magical environment, she was sure to have more information on the subject than Angela. Maybe being a dark creature was more commonly accepted than Angela thought. After all, she didn't even know what a dark creature was really.

"You found what?" Cassandra pressed.

"Nothing…" Angela said absently. She couldn't tell them, not yet. Not until she knew more. Angela jumped up suddenly; it was time to get some answers. "I need to go see Remus about something." She was halfway across the room before Lily stopped her.

"You can't! He's not here." Angela whipped around.

"What do you mean?" She demanded.

"James told me he left after dinner. He's gone home, I don't recall why." Angela considered asking them once more if they didn't find that odd, but decided against it. They didn't seem to think anything of these strange disappearances. Angela felt like she would burst at any moment, how was it that she was the only one who noticed all of this? She felt like she was the only one listening and she just wanted to scream to get everyone's attention. Maybe she was losing her mind…

"Alright then." She said to no one in particular. She turned back around and began walking out of the dormitory again.

"Where are you going?" Lily called.

"To the library." She answered stiffly. She heard Cassandra say something along the lines of, "But it's late!" Angela paid no attention.

She found James, Sirius and Peter sitting in the common room. James and Peter were playing wizards' chess and Sirius was watching, absolutely fascinated.

"James, could I…erm, borrow your cloak?" Angela asked quietly, trying not to attract the ears of other Gryffindors.

"What do you need my cloak for? Don't you have your own?" James asked, not taking his eyes off the game. He moved a piece and declared, "Check." Peter looked nervous.

"No, I mean your _other_ cloak." Angela said, trying to give him a meaningful look, but he still paid no attention. Sirius, however, looked at her strangely.

"What do you need it for?" Sirius asked, suspiciously. Angela glared at him.

"It's none of your business, is it?"

"No, but it is mine." James said, still watching the game. Peter made a move to try and save himself, but James only seemed pleased by this and moved into checkmate. "Again?" He asked Peter.

"Hey, no fair!" Sirius protested, "I want to play!"

"You don't know how."

"I've been watching you two for three matches! I think I've picked up a bit, I'm not _that _dense!" Angela begged to differ, but for once she didn't contradict Sirius.

"Alright, you can play." James conceded. In an instant Sirius was up and nearly shoving Peter out of his seat.

"Okay, okay! No need to get pushy!" Peter said indignantly.

"So what do you need it for?' James asked, addressing Angela.

"I need to go to the library." She said, lowering her voice. Sirius snorted.

"The library? Trust me Angel-Cake, all the books in the world couldn't help you!" Angela rolled her eyes, she had no time for a silly insult war, still…such comments could not go unretaliated.

"Is that so? What does that say about you Dog-Boy? Who gets better marks in Potions?"

"Just because you seem to have Slytherin tendencies, doesn't make you bright! Quite the opposite really." Sirius retorted. It was a commonly known fact that Potions was a subject at which Slytherins excelled, though it could have something to do with the Potions master and the Slytherin head being one in the same.

"Me!?" Angela nearly shouted, "I'm not the one who…"

"Enough!" James yelled. "Angela, I will get the cloak for you, but you must treat it with the utmost respect." Angela nodded. James ran upstairs and came back down with the invisibility cloak, trying to hide it from view. Luckily, no one ever really paid attention to first-years because he wasn't doing a very good job. He handed it to Angela reluctantly; he had not yet grown accustomed to handing his cloak over to others.

"Don't worry, it's in good hands." Angela reassured him. Sirius guffawed, but Angela ignored him and snuck out of the common room.

Angela snuck down to the library, under cover of the invisibility cloak. She decided that the most logical place to start looking was under dark creatures and she found a listing of all the known dark creatures. It was long…very long. Angela sighed, convinced that she'd never figure it out. Most of these creatures she'd never heard of, though some she had, like vampires and banshees. She was fairly certain that Remus was neither.

How was she ever going to figure Remus' secret out? She decided to start at the top and work her way down. She was convinced that by the end of her search she should at the top of her Defense against the Dark Arts class. She would know of just about every dark creature and just how to protect against them.

She was amused to discover that there was actually a creature called the bogeyman. The bogeyman was actually _created _by a young boy's uncle who had been trying to show the boy that the boogeyman _did_ exist. Unfortunately, do to the uncle's slight accent, he conjured the bogeyman instead. The bogeyman is not considered dangerous. However, it is recommended that when dealing with the creature one carries a large supply of tissues at all times.

Angela grew tired quickly and wasn't sure she could stay awake much longer. She looked out the window at the moon. It hypnotized her…it looked so…big tonight. Something nagged at her in the back of her brain, but she didn't really notice it; she was just too tired. 

There were so many things floating in her mind that it was hard to concentrate on just one. She had no idea that all these creatures really existed, they were just supposed to be stories to scare little kids and campers. Remus couldn't really be one of them, could he? The moon was so bright…she struggled to keep her eyes open…and disturbing images of the bogeyman flew through her head as she let her head droop down to the table and she slipped into a deep slumber.

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A/N: Did you like it? I know I have a lot of Angela-centered chapters which might annoy some people (I know some are not fond of OC's), but right now they are essential to the plot. I have future plots that revolve around the each of the other characters, this is just where the plot is right now. Actually, I don't really have a plot for Peter…except for the whole going evil thing. I just don't know what I'm going to do with him. *Shakes head* Oh well. Please review! By the way, does anyone know why there are no indents at the beginning of my paragraphs? I just realized that. I always indent when I'm writing and it comes out fine in Microsoft Word, but not on ff.net. Does anyone know why?

Thanks to… 

Neoma- Glad you like it! ;-)

Someone- Not quite to the discovery of Remus' secret, but close! Even I am getting anxious so I think that it will happen in one of the next couple chapters. Hope you liked this chapter!

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters, it is most appreciated. 


	25. Badgering Angela

A/N: I have nothing to say at this point in time. Sorry! L Please enjoy and review!

Disclaimer: I do not own any Harry Potter characters, places or things. I admit this freely; do not sue me.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 25-Badgering Angela

Angela awoke the next morning to a very angry librarian.

"Wake up little missy!" The librarian shook Angela roughly. "Wake up! Libraries are no places for students to be sleeping in!" Angela jolted up, finally aware of her surroundings. Had she really slept in the library? 

"It's about time!" The librarian huffed. "I've been trying to wake you up for at least ten minutes! A library is no place for a girl to be sleeping. Have you been here all night?" Angela thought quickly, as quickly as she could for just waking up. One thought stood out clearly in her mind…saying yes would get her into definite trouble.

"Err…no…I woke up early this morning…I had to…look something up…for a class." The librarian looked at Angela suspiciously, but accepted her answer.

"Well, you had better get going now before you miss your classes for the day!" The librarian warned and marched away. Angela let out a breath of relief.

Angela shut the book she had been reading last night, grabbed the invisibility cloak from underneath the table and quickly made her way back to the Gryffindor common room. When she made it through the portrait James nearly pounced on her; he was not to pleased with her vanishing for the night with his cloak. She was bombarded with scolding questions and angry accusations.

"Oh here!" she shoved the cloak into his hands. "It's back in one piece, isn't it?" James examined it carefully before throwing Angela one last angry glance and ran up to the boys' dormitory. Angela yawned and decided she needed to clean up a bit before going down to breakfast. She trudged slowly up the stairs; she still felt exhausted.

All that, she thought, and I still don't know anything...except that you should never sleep in a library. Her neck was killing her!

When she finally did get to breakfast, she sat across from James, who seemed to have forgotten his anger. Sirius however, would not let the incident die.

"So, the library…" Sirius began.

"Yeah, you know where the books live. You might try reading one sometime." Angela snapped; she was in no mood to bicker with anyone this morning, she had after all spent a horrible night's sleep in a library.

"And you might try sleeping in a bed rather than the library. I hear it's all the rage." Angela's eyes narrowed. 

"Are you two done? I'd like to eat in peace for once!" James said. They each turned back to their breakfast and forgot about last nights events, but on the way to Herbology, Sirius returned to the topic. 

"So what were you doing in the library anyway?" Sirius asked. He had pulled Angela back from the group so that no one would notice his questions to her.

"I was looking for something." Angela said simply.

"Something like…"

"What's it to you?" Angela sped her pace a bit, but Sirius wasn't discouraged and kept up with her.

"I was just wondering what was so important that you felt you had to spend the night in the library."

"I shall spend the night where I please." Angela said irritably. Sirius was the last person she wanted to tell about her findings.

"Well, do you suppose Dumbledore would agree with you?" Angela gave him a nasty look.

"What makes you think he doesn't know?" She bluffed.

"I assume that if he did you would be in trouble by now." Sirius reasoned. "What if I were to let him in on your little secret?" Angela came to a halt and whipped around to face Sirius.

"You wouldn't!"

"Tell me what you were doing." Sirius demanded.

"Why, So you can go tell Dumbledore about that as well?" 

"Is it something he shouldn't know about? Would you get in trouble if he knew?" Sirius asked urgently. Angela didn't answer, she turned back around and continued her course to the greenhouses. "Oh come on! You have to tell me!" Sirius whined.

"Oh really? And why is that, praytell?" Sirius pouted.

"Because it's not fair for you to scheme without me." Angela rolled her eyes. "Besides, maybe I could help." Sirius added.

"You don't have to be involved in everything. You know that, right? I mean, there are plenty of people who get on very well without _your_ help. In fact, I would go so far as to say that there are people all over the world who are much more successful without your help than they would be with it! So, if you don't mind, leave me be!" With that Angela sped ahead until she caught up with the others, leaving Sirius behind to sulk.

"I will find out what you're up to!" Sirius vowed quietly as he ran to catch up as well. 

After classes that day, Angela, Lily and Cassandra were sitting in the common room, trying to finish an essay for Transfiguration.

"Hello ladies!" Sirius greeted pleasantly. as he sat himself across from Angela. "Angela." He nodded in recognition. She gave him a dangerous look, but said nothing. "What are you up to this fine evening?"

"We're trying to finish homework. What do you want?" Angela asked quickly. Sirius grinned.

"You know what I want Angel Cake." Lily and Cassandra giggled. "Where were you last night?"

"Sirius, I told you I was in the library, I told you this earlier. Even your memory isn't _that_ bad."

"You really expect us to believe you spent the night in the library?"

"Since when did you become and us?" Angela asked trying to distract him.

"Since we were kind of wondering the same thing." Lily jumped in, setting her quill down and looking attentively at Angela. Cassandra did the same.

"Well, I hate to disappoint, but I was in fact in the library." Angela reiterated.

"Alright then…what were you doing in the library?" Sirius asked.

"Did it have something to do with Remus?" Cassandra asked. Angela couldn't believe it; they had all turned against her! She had no reinforcements.

"Remus? What's this?" Sirius asked confused.

"Last night she asked us if we thought Remus was strange and then she ran off to the library." Cassandra supplied.

"I thought we had settled that a long time ago." Sirius said. "Why are you so obsessed with it?"

"Because, something's off and I just…I'm curious."

"Well, if you ask me, you're the strange one, not Remus." Sirius replied.

"Who thinks I'm strange?" A new voice asked. The group turned to see a troubled Remus standing behind them. Like usual, he had come back from his absence looking sick and beat up.

"Angela." Sirius admitted immediately. Angela smacked him. Remus looked at her, a bit hurt.

"It's not that I think you're strange…" Angela said, "you just act strange sometimes."

"Sounds like you think I'm strange to me." Remus said wryly. No one knew what to say for a moment, so Remus just turned and ran to the dormitories. Angela smacked Sirius again.

"See what you did!" She said angrily.

"What I did! You're the one who kept sticking your nose into his business!" Angela added nothing else, but she gathered her things and silently went upstairs. It's not my fault!" Sirius told Lily and Cassandra. They only shrugged.

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A/N: So Angela sticks her nose into Remus' business and Sirius sticks his nose into Angela's business. What is this fictional world coming to? *shakes head* Sadly, I think I know people in the real world who are worse than this! Please review!

Thanks to… 

Neoma

Someone

(Sorry, I would have written individual thank you notes, but my mind is a little drained and I couldn't think of any thing to say tonight. I would have waited to post this until I had something to say, but I just wanted to get this chapter up ASAP.)

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters, it is most appreciated. 


	26. Bad Apologies

A/N: I have recently noticed that I use these author notes as more of a journal than actual notes on the story. Odd… Anyway, I also noticed that my stupid computer has erased my work and created little box letters on at least two different occasions (both times I used my A/N to rant about it). Stupid thing. Now, every time I want to save something to a disk, I have to send it to another computer. Piece of junk…grrrr.

Disclaimer: I do not own any Harry Potter characters, places or things. I admit this freely; do not sue me.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 26-Bad Apologies

The next day Remus didn't really talk to anyone and he especially avoided Angela. He couldn't really blame her for thinking his actions were strange, but it still upset him that his friends would sit around and talk about him like that. Remus was also paranoid that the others would find out his secret and he really could not allow that to happen. He figured if he pretended to be really angry with them that they would drop the subject. He was wrong.

 Angela cornered him outside the Great Hall after dinner. He couldn't run away, it would look a little _too_ suspicious. To Remus' surprise, Angela started, not with questions, but with an apology.

"Remus, I really am sorry if I offended you." She paused for a moment. "Which I'm sure I did and you have every right to be angry…but…no wait please hear me out!" Remus had started to walk away as soon as she added the 'but'. Remus consented and stood still, but ready to dash away if she said the wrong thing. Angela noticed this and began again carefully.

"You can't really blame me for being a little suspicious, can you? I mean, you're always leaving school and you come back looking much worse than when you left and… " Angela considered telling him about the file, but that would be admitting that she had snooped into Remus' personal business. Somehow she thought that might make things worse. "and I think you'll understand my concern for you. After all you are my friend and I just wanted to make sure that you were alright." Angela waited and it seemed as though Remus wouldn't say anything at all.

"But you still think I'm strange?" Remus asked quietly as stared at the floor. He knew he was different, but it still hurt when someone else knew it.

"No…not really…like I said…some of the things you do are just a little suspicious. I didn't mean that anything was wrong with you." Remus gave a small nod, accepting her answer. He still felt…embarrassed about the whole situation, but he had decided to forgive and forget. That is until Angela spoke up again.

"Remus…I don't mean to push you…but the thing is…I'm still worried about you and I would really like to know…well, what's going on? With you that is." Remus was torn between anger for her prying, _again_ and gratitude for her caring enough to ask what was wrong with him. Anger won.

"I'm fine, you needn't worry about me." Remus said huffily and walked away. Angela sighed and watched Remus stomp away.

That went well, she thought wryly.

Remus found his way to the common room and saw that Sirius and Peter were playing Exploding Snap. Lily and Cassandra sat by the fire with a couple of second year girls, chatting animatedly. Remus briefly wondered where James was, but didn't dwell on it for long.

"Oy! Remus! Come here!" Sirius shouted, halting his and Peter's game. Remus hesitated, but decided he would have to face this sometime. 

"Hello Remus." Peter greeted as Remus joined them. Remus nodded in an acknowledgement.

"Look…er…Remus" Sirius began uncomfortably. "I just wanted to tell you…" Remus stopped him.

"Don't worry about it Sirius. No hard feelings." Sirius looked suddenly relieved.

"Yes, well, you should know that if anyone is strange it's Angela, so don't feel bad about it." Sirius said, hoping to get a smile out of Remus. He wasn't disappointed.

"Thanks Sirius." Remus said. Remus was relieved, now he would only have to worry about Angela.

After Remus walked away, Angela stood in place for a moment, not sure what to do. She couldn't go back to the common room, she was sure that was where Remus was headed and she didn't want to look like she was following him. 

She decided to go back to the library for a bit while students were allowed to be out; she had a feeling James wouldn't be lending her his cloak anytime soon. She was hoping this trip to the library would be a bit more successful than her last. She was only growing more impatient with Remus' secret and felt like she actually _needed_ to figure it out. She felt a small pang of guilt over prying, especially since she had just made Remus angry over it, however, curiosity overtook her and she decided to continue her quest.

As she began searching through the numerous shelves of Hogwart's library, she was startled to hear a voice say,

"So you really were in the library, weren't you?" Angela spun around and saw James, holding his invisibility cloak and staring at her. Angela raised her eyebrow.

"Isn't that what I told you to begin with?" James shrugged and gave her a lopsided smile.

"Can you blame me for being curious?" Angela felt a sudden sense of déjà vu.

"You know, you don't need that thing." She said nodding toward his cloak. "Students are actually allowed to be out at this time."

"Yes, but it makes it so much easier to spy on people when you are invisible." Angela' eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"And just who have you been spying on, may I ask?" James grinned evilly.

"If you must know, I was spying on you and Remus." He answered honestly.

"You have nothing better to do then?" Angela asked, a bit annoyed.

"What could be more important than finding out the detailed information of a friend's well-being?" James paused and then added seriously, "What exactly did Remus mean when he asked if you thought he was strange?" Angela sighed. She supposed she must let it out sometime.

"Last night, I was talking to Lily, Cassandra and Sirius when Remus came in. He heard the wrong part of the conversation and he found out that I had been…concerned about his state. I had asked the others if they found Remus' behavior strange and so Remus took it the wrong way, the most likely way, but the wrong way." James thought for a moment.

"You didn't do a very good job of apologizing you know." James said finally. "It's not good to follow 'I'm sorry' with 'what's wrong with you?'. Just a little tip."

"Yes, thank you." Angela said sarcastically. James cleared his throat.

"Sooo…er…what _do_ you think is wrong with him?" Angela stared at him, dumbfounded.

"Oh! I see! Now you want to discuss this, yet when I first asked you, you brushed me off. Now all of the sudden you want me to share information that I have taken great pains to uncover? I don't think so!" Angela made it look like she was about to storm away, but she was sure that James would stop her, which he did.

"Come on! Before all you had was scratches to support your suspicions! Sorry if _I_ don't like to jump to conclusions! Now you obviously know something for sure and I want to know what it is!" Angela crossed her arms over her chest.

"And just what makes you think you have a right to such information?"

"Because I know that you're dying to tell someone and I'm the only one to show any interest so far…am I right? Besides, you could use a little help. Who better than me?" Angela debated with herself for a moment, but made a decision.

"If you're so smart James, why don't you just figure it out on your own?" Angela said dryly and walked away. She wasn't going to make it so easy for them all. She had been the one to take the risk of looking in Remus' file, she was the one who stayed up late in the library searching and she was the one who had to face Remus' wrath. If they wanted to know so badly, they would have to do the work for themselves.

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A/N: Please review!

Thanks to… 

LilyPotter7 (twice!)- I had actually forgotten that Molly and Arthur went to school with Lily and MWPP. Thanks for trying to remind me. J I know they still haven't played a huge part, but I'm working on it! Thanks for the reviews! 

tara- Sorry about the shortness, I think this one may be a little short as well or maybe it's just that nothing really big happened. I don't know. Anyway, I'm on the verge of very important events, so the chapters should get a bit more lengthy. Thanks for reviewing!

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters, it is most appreciated. 


	27. Gifts from James’ Uncle

A/N: Hello! I've been a bit busy reading the Lord of the Rings, but I have been trying to keep up with my writing! I will not abandon this story darnit!

Disclaimer: I disclaim everything I ought to.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 27- Gifts from James' Uncle

On the last day before Christmas break, Remus woke up to Sirius bouncing on his bed.

"Wake up lazy bones!" Sirius shouted. "Time for breakfast!" This was not usual Sirius behavior; he was usually the _last_ to wake up and Remus usually the first. Remus wondered at this briefly, but considering Sirius was nearly jumping _on_ Remus' head, he didn't have much time to think.

When Remus finally got up, he was a little annoyed to find that it was far earlier than breakfast is even served and that James' and Sirius' were in some sort of giggling fit. Still, Remus and Peter allowed themselves to be practically dragged down to the Great Hall, for what purpose they did not know, but would soon find out.

James threw open the doors to the Great Hall to find that it was filled only with House Elves who quickly scurried away and vanished.

"What were those?" Sirius asked in amazement, he had never seen such creatures.

"House Elves." Peter answered groggily.

"Never mind that." James said, waving his hand impatiently. "We have a job to do." Remus raised an eyebrow, though he was still a bit grumpy, he was also curious.

"Really? And what job is this? And why are we here so early?" James gave Remus a friendly slap on the back.

"We are here for the purpose of mischief my friend, as always." James grinned and shoved a sac into Remus' hands. Remus peeked into the bag and found it filled with many green, red and gold candies.

"Where did you get these?" Remus asked.

"From my dear uncle, a great man is he!" James proclaimed proudly. "Now put these at every place on the Ravenclaw table." Remus dared to ask why, but the only answer was, "You'll see!"

Remus went about his work at the Ravenclaw table, Peter at the Hufflepuff table and Sirius, who had a rather maniacal grin, at the Slytherin table. Remus also noticed that James was spreading the candies around the Gryffindor table.

"So James, you are planning to prank the Gryffindors as well then?" Remus asked curiously.

"Of course not! I couldn't do such a thing to my own house! But it would look suspicious to the other houses if we had no candy, wouldn't it? Then they might not eat it at all." This seemed to make sense, but James was still grinning something awful and so Remus thought that he would not eat any candy, even from the Gryffindor table.

"No time for chit-chat!" Sirius said in a mock-angry voice. "I've already finished with Slytherin and you are all going much slower than you should! Make haste good people!" Sirius skipped down the Great Hall, laughing all the way. To Remus, he looked a bit impish, but he stifled a chuckle and continued his work. 

They finished up and returned to their dormitory; it wouldn't look good for them to be in the Hall before the professors.

James and Sirius danced around the room, making up a song about their plot. It wasn't a very good song as they were not very good at rhyming, but it was quite amusing to them.

**We'll prank them good!**

**And then we…could…** James stalled.

**Have a bit of toast!** Sirius sang helpfully.

**The thing we love the most!** James added, most pleased with himself.

**The Hufflepuffs will…huff!**

**When they've seen what we've done!**

**The Ravenclaws will…run!**

**And…we'll think it's much fun!**

**Because…Slytherins will be!**

**The…worst of the three!**

**Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha!**

By this time Remus and Peter were nearly rolling on the floor with laughter over the idiotic song, but James and Sirius didn't seem to care as the kept on dancing and singing.

When finally James and Sirius had calmed down, the boys returned to the Great Hall. Many students and teachers had already sat down and were eating breakfast. The pranksters sat down and Remus noticed that a few of the candies had already been opened and presumably eaten.

"Er…James…nothing's happening." Remus said. James smiled slyly.

"Don't worry, it will." James promised quietly. "That's the beauty of it, they don't work for _at least_ an hour, maybe more. That way, the plot isn't given away before _everyone_ has a chance at the candies."

Soon, more and more students filled the Great Hall and Angela, Lily and Cassandra joined the boys.

"Good morning ladies!" James said cheerfully. The girls mumbled greetings and began digging in to breakfast.

"What's this?" Lily held up a piece of candy.

"It's candy, what does it look like?" Sirius replied, trying to sound annoyed. Though, seeing as he was _still_ grinning, he didn't pull it off well. " Try it." He urged. Lily and Cassandra being the trusting souls they were and being that it was still far too early to be paranoid, both started unwrapping the treats. Angela however, was suspicious of anything concerning Sirius and she stopped them.

"I see that you haven't touched yours. Why don't you try it?" Angela challenged.

"Er…I cannot, you see…I am allergic." Sirius lied.

"Really? You haven't even opened it to see what kind it is." Said Cassandra, catching on.

"Erm…well…"

"Neither have Remus and James I see. How interesting." Lily commented, now setting her own piece of candy down.

"Well, the truth is really, I have no taste for sweets this morning. But you go ahead. Enjoy!" Sirius said hopefully.

"I would not feel right about enjoying this treat without you. I insist." Angela said sweetly. Sirius thought for a moment and decided cleverly that he would _pretend_ to slip the candy in his mouth and then they would really eat it. It was perfect!

"Alright!" Sirius threw up his hands and then made a great show of unwrapping the candy and bringing it to his mouth. Just as he was about to make the slip, Angela added,

"And I would very much like to see it in your mouth, if you don't mind. Can't be too careful!" Sirius groaned inwardly, but stuck the candy in his mouth and showed her. 'There', he thought, 'At least now she'll eat it and I can spit it out into my goblet.'

"Now it's your turn!" Sirius said quickly, reaching for his goblet.

"No…I don't think I have a taste for it either. You can have it if you like." Angela offered. Cassandra and Lily agreed. Sirius forgot the goblet and spit the candy out angrily.

"That's not fair!" he protested. Angela smiled pleasantly.

"Sure it is. I never said that I would eat it if you did." James, Remus, Lily and Cassandra all burst out laughing; Sirius had been duped! Peter however looked crestfallen.

"I thought you said that there was nothing wrong with the Gryffindor ones!" Peter cried. James noticed the empty wrapper in front of Peter.

"Oh Peter! You didn't…the whole thing?" Peter nodded, sending the group into an even louder fits of giggles.

It did take about an hour or so for the effects of the prank to come to light, and what a light it was! Students began literally lighting up like Christmas trees. Some were green, some were red, some were gold and some were a rather nasty looking mixture and these were the ones who glowed the brightest. Another effect was that, every now and then students would suddenly burst into a Christmas carol, not in their own voice, but in a loud, female, opera voice that could be heard for long, long distances.

 Not all students were infected as not all the students took part in enjoying the candies. However, some students glowed even brighter and sang louder and were a mixture of colors; these were the students who had had more than their share of treats. Sirius had made sure to put quite a few extras at the Slytherin table.

You can imagine how these events disturbed classes. Professors could barely see their students, let alone talk above the carols. Fortunately, seeing as it was the last day of classes before Christmas, the professors were in good spirits and didn't seem to mind much.

"Oh just go!" McGonagall said to her first-year Gryffindors. "We'll get nothing done today!"

All in all, the joke was taken quite well, even among the afflicted. Sirius and Peter, however, were not initially amused. Sirius glowed only a little and his singing could barely be heard, though Lily did cast a charm on him once or twice to magnify his voice. Peter on the other hand, had had a full piece of candy and felt the full effects.

"I think he's a rather pretty shade of green, don't you?" James commented to Remus who nodded furiously, still trying to hide his laughter.

By nightfall everything was back to normal and everyone was good-humored again. It had been a very good day.

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A/N: Next Chapter: The Truth About Remus! Yay! It's all written, I just need to type, proofread and upload it. Hopefully I'll get that done soon. Please review!

Thanks to… 

          Neoma-Sorry I didn't thank you last chapter, I didn't know you reviewed until too late. I'm thanking you now though!

tara- Here's the next one! Thanks for reviewing!

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters, it is most appreciated. 


	28. The Truth about Remus

A/N: Ahhh…the day had come! I tried to make articles Angela was reading appear in different font, but alas…ff.net does not conform to my wishes. Now, they are underlined.

Disclaimer: I am lucky to own the shirt on my back. And this computer…even though it's a piece of junk. Anyway, I do not own Harry Potter.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 28- The Truth about Remus

It was the eve before Christmas Eve and Angela was in the library, _again_. She had been through most of the list of magical and/or dark creatures and had made quite a few notes, however she still had no idea who or what Remus was. It was rather discouraging, truth be told, and she was beginning to doubt that she saw what she thought she saw. Perhaps she read the file wrong...she had been in a hurry and under a lot of pressure.

'Vampires' she thought, 'No, I really think not. I _have_ seen him in the sunlight.' She skipped over vampires and went on to the next creature…

Veela, she read, are not necessarily considered dark.

 Angela had a feeling that this ruled veela out, but she read on anyway. Upon reading the rest of the description she decided that no…veela were definitely out of the question. She then moved on to…

Werewolves.

She shook her head, a few months ago she would not have believed werewolves even existed and now... The realization that they did in fact exist was a bit startling to her. She supposed that they were still an option and went to look them up.

'Werewolves…werewolves,' she thought as she searched for information 'a-ha! Found it!'

A Werewolf is a human, magical or non-magical, who turns into a vicious wolf every month at the full moon. In order for a person to be turned into a werewolf they must first receive a bite from a werewolf on the night of the full moon.

Angela snorted and thought, 'Well, that's helpful! I'll just go right up to Remus and ask, 'Hey buddy! Have you been bitten by any werewolves recently? That'll go over well.' Still, she continued. 

Although a werewolf _may_ appear to be gentle and passive in human state, in wolf state they are highly aggressive, dangerous and even deadly to humans. It is for this reason that the Ministry of Magic keeps a close watch over such creatures and enforces strict laws about captivity during the full moon.

This made Angela's heart skip a beat. 'The Ministry?' She thought. 'The Registration! Well that fits!' But was Remus really…could it be? She was jumping to conclusions she decided. It didn't say werewolves had to register, just that the Ministry kept tabs on them. That didn't necessarily mean…perhaps because she was anxious…she _was_ nearly out of creatures.

Then there was the whole business with the monthly disappearances…that would explain a lot. But were Remus' disappearances monthly? And during the full moon? She couldn't recall.

 She mentally slapped herself and decided she must continue.

Often times, when a werewolf is kept captive during its transformation, the human is found afterwards to be badly bruised, slashed and even bitten. These wounds are generally self-inflicted due to the restlessness of the wolf without humans to hunt.

 Angela gulped. 'Oh God!' She thought. 'The scratches and everything!' If it was true…the thought of what injuries she couldn't even see on her poor friend flashed in her mind, making her wince. Still she went on…

The transformation of a werewolf also greatly weakens the human side and so the infected person often falls ill at the time of the full moon.

That described Remus perfectly! Was this it? What she had been looking for? She tried to remember when Remus was last vanished. Was that a full moon?

It wasn't too hard to remember, that was the night she spent in the library. But how could she remember if it was a full moon or not? She wouldn't have thought to look before. Angela wracked her brain for answer. 'The moon…the moon…' she thought, 'the moon…what did it look like?' This was ridiculous, how was she supposed to remember what the moon looked like on one particular night? She wasn't an astronomer! She may not have noticed it at all.

No…that wasn't right…a thought was tugging at her brain, just beyond her consciousness like a word that is on the tip of your tongue, but you just can't seem to get it out.

Then it hit her. She remembered that she had been nearly asleep…nearly. She looked out the window and there it was! She remembered it almost perfectly now...the moon had looked huge to her eyes. Still…did that necessarily mean that it was completely full? She had herself almost convinced that it was…but how could she be certain?

A calendar! That's what she needed…a lunar calendar maybe. They had to have one here…was this not a wizard's library?

Angela took off practically running in search…she was so close…so close. She forced herself to calm down. She didn't really know anything yet; she supposed there were lots of other reasons for Remus' behavior. 'But then again…why haven't I found another reason?' a voice in her head whispered to her.

'There it is! Just what I need!' She grabbed the calendar and scurried back to her table. She tore through the pages of the calendar and found December. She found the day she was looking for and sure enough, it had been a full moon. She gasped involuntarily.

'This was it,' she thought, 'but when else was he gone? Come on think!' It was the night she first became suspicious of him…when was that?

'The Quidditch match! Remus' grandmother had died! Or at least that was what he told us…' Remus had been lying to them all, at least if her findings were correct. Oh, but when was the Quidditch game? November? Yes, that was it…November…a weekend in November. She remembered that and she remembered that weekend, it had been such an exciting time. She looked it up on the calendar and felt her heart skip a beat when she saw that it also had been the full moon.

'Could be coincidences…could mean anything…' When else? When else had he disappeared? When…when…she stopped. Before Halloween, before they had stolen the potion. That's right…they had been talking about stealing the potion and Sirius wanted to do it as soon as possible…that weekend he said. But Remus couldn't…he had to leave. She couldn't remember the date…she did know about when though, was that near a full moon? She looked and…yes it was right about that time.

'October, November, December…what about September?' It felt like ages ago, how could she remember? 'Think Angela! You were so excited to be at Hogwarts…to have finally arrived. What do you remember? When was Remus just not there.' It was so hard to remember and now her brain felt scattered in so many different directions. Still…she had to remember, she just _had_ to.

Then it came to her…they had to tell Remus what had happened the night before because he wasn't there. She remembered that conversation, but what had been about? Something had happened, but what was it?

Snape! Snape had turned her hair green! That was it! That was when they became so determined to get back at Snape. And that was just a couple weeks into the term! The calendar told her that it was just about the right time for the full moon. She didn't have the exact date, but something in her mind told her that she was right.

Everything fit, true she didn't have completely perfect evidence, but she had enough that she was convinced. She now knew Remus' secret, she knew the truth…Remus Lupin was a werewolf.

But now what?

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A/N: The truth is finally known! To one person at least…get ready for a domino effect. Please review!

Thanks to… 

Neoma- I'm glad you're enjoying my story! Always good to see. Thanks very much for reviewing!

I-Love-Moony- Ah! New reviewer I see! Welcome! I'm glad you've liked the story so far and I hope you like this one as well.

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters, it is most appreciated. 


	29. Boys Will Be Boys…Boys Who Have Pillow F...

A/N: I'm so sorry for making you guys wait so long! Time just seems to fly by these days. I think…hmm, I should finish that chapter that I started A MONTH AGO! But then when I get on the computer, somehow I end up reading fan fiction instead of writing it. Do you know…I had all but the last two paragraphs of this chapter written just a night after I posted the last chapter. I thought I was going to write a lot more in this chapter, but when I finally sat down to write it, I decided that it need to end. Anyway, sorry again! You know that thing that people say when they're challenging someone to a sword fight? You know, like 'On Guard!' Only I have a feeling that's not it. I don't know what that really is so it's just 'On guard' in this story. Ok?

Disclaimer: Where do I even begin?

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 29- Boys Will Be Boys…Boys Who Have Pillow Fights

"WAKE UP!" Sirius woke with a jump and fell of his bed. He peeked over the side of his bed to find Remus, laughing hid head off. Remus had decided that scaring Sirius awake would be nice payback for Sirius' previous jumping on the bed incident and of course, what better time than early Christmas morning? Sirius did not seem to appreciate it. 

"You had better run Lupin!" Which is exactly what Remus had intended to do until he saw Sirius make a move to get off the floor, tangle himself in his blankets and fall flat on his face once more. This of course, sent Remus into another fit of laughter and he was unable to run.

Sirius got angrier and tried again to pick himself up; this time he succeeded.

"Bloody hell!" Remus cried when he realized that Sirius was coming at him. Remus darted away, but Sirius followed close behind.

"You can run! But you can't hide!" Sirius shouted. He almost had Remus cornered in between James and Peter's beds. Remus made left towards Peter's bed, but dodges our of the way and Sirius is sent flying though Peter's bed curtains, bringing them down over the top of himself and Peter. Remus hears Peter cry out in anguish. 'Sirius must have landed on top of the poor boy.' Remus thought.

"Oy! What's going on?" James asked sleepily. He now stood behind Remus watching the two lumps underneath Peter's curtain.

"Mww ooo eeelllie gwt!" Came a voice from within.

"What was that? I don't think I caught it." Remus asked, still laughing, Sirius emerged suddenly, huffing and puffing.

"I said, now you're really in for it!" Sirius had an evil glint in his eye that cued Remus to back away. Remus threw James in front of himself for protection.

"Hey! Don't put me in the middle!" James protested and ran away. Sirius' grin grew wider and he slowly stepped toward Remus. Remus stepped beck in response, but there really wasn't anywhere for him to go. Then he got and idea; he felt behind his back for James pillow. He grabbed the pillow and whipped it out in front of him.

"On guard!" Remus cried. Sirius had the urge to burst out laughing, but he wasn't through with his retribution.

"You dare to challenge me?" Sirius asked indignantly. "You dare challenge Siri…" He was cut off by a pillow in the face. He was so surprised by this that he was sent sprawling backwards into Peter, who had only just been able to release himself from the entrapment of his curtains. They both flew back onto Peter's bed, giving Remus the chance to run away.

Sirius grabbed Peter's pillow and bolted after Remus. Sirius chased Remus around the room for quite awhile until Remus grew tired finally whipped around to face Sirius. Sirius couldn't stop himself in time and he flew into Remus. They landed on the floor with a thud.

"I have you now!" Sirius cried and began bombarding Remus with pillow attacks. This went on for a minute or two until Remus threw Sirius off of him and scrambled away. He again ran to James to hide behind. James was laughing to hard to realize the danger of this situation. Sirius chased Remus around James in a circle, occasionally hitting James trying to get Remus.

"Why is it always me?" James complained and ducked out. Sirius and began hitting each other unmercifully and both tried to move away. They had Peter backed up against a wall. Sirius took a big swing and knocked Remus back a bit.

"Ha-ha! You can't defeat me" Remus got ready to retaliate, which Sirius saw and he ducked just before Remus' pillow clobbered him. Instead, Remus ended up smacking Peter who was right behind Sirius. Remus' eyes widened in shock.

"Oooo…sorry Peter!" Remus said guiltily. Peter grumbled.

"Oh Remus!" Remus turned around to find both Sirius and James, with pillows, coming towards him. Soon they were in a three way, every-man-for-himself, pillow fight, Soon, however, they realized that there was loud laughter coming from outside their fold. They saw Peter sitting on the floor, crying with laughter. The three boys exchanged a mischievous look and crept towards Peter. He never knew what hit him.

They chased each other around the room until Sirius tripped over something, something he hadn't noticed before.

"Presents!" This halted everything; pillows lay forgotten as the boys dug into their presents.

"What in the name of merlin happened in here?" Angela exclaimed. She had gotten lonely in the girls' dormitory; both Lily and Cassandra had gone home. She had decided to sneak up to the boys' dormitory, however she was not prepared for the sight of ruin before her. Pillows were thrown every which way along with blankets, curtains, wrapping paper…and just about anything else you can think of.

"Happy Christmas Angel-Cake!" cried Sirius happily. He was in such a good mood that he could even stand to be nice to her for a change. The others wished her happy Christmas as well and she gave a little smile.

"Happy Christmas." Angela greeted absently. This was the first time she had been anywhere near Remus since she found out about…you know. She felt bad about avoiding him, but she still felt so conflict in what to think about it all. She couldn't stand to be alone on Christmas day though, and so she decided to try and forget it for the moment.

"Come sit with us Angela!" Remus invited. She smiled again and joined them. She sat as far from Remus as she could without looking suspicious. Perhaps forgetting wouldn't be so easy.

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A/N: I not sure how this chapter will be received. I know you all were probably waiting to see what happens with the werewolf thing, but this chapter just kind of popped out first. More on the werewolf plot next time! Please review!

Thanks to… 

Neoma- Yes I wish I was a wizard too…oh the fun I'd have at my school…

I-Love-Moony- Sorry it took so long to get this up. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

SiriusXRemusDracoXRonRAWX- I'm glad you enjoyed the story so far! I hope come back and read more!

Tara- Well, not to much of Angela in this chapter, but the next one should have more of her reaction…I think. I just needed to get through Christmas.

CLuMzYaZnGrL106- You brave soul! I don't think I'll ever bring myself to read the 5th book AGAIN! It was devastating the first time! If Lupin were to die in the 6th or 7th book I think I would burn all my Harry Potter books. Well…at least 5 and up. Anyway, I'm glad you've enjoyed the story.

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters, it is most appreciated. 


	30. January

A/N: Alright then, another chapter delivered. Yay! Lookie! This is the 30th chapter…and I'm STILL writing the 1st year. Oh well…

Disclaimer: I own this fan fiction, nothing more.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 30- January

The following weeks were very tense. Angela hardly spoke a word to Remus and always made sure not to sit or stand near him. She would often go completely out of her way not to be near him. She couldn't explain why, she just didn't want to even see him now. He wasn't who she thought he was and some part of her actually _feared_ Remus.

She tried to be discreet, but no one failed to notice how Angela was behaving, Remus was especially affected by this. Yet no one really said anything about it…that is until Remus disappeared again. Then they got the idea that, with Remus out of the way for a bit, Angela would feel free to talk. However, approaching her was not well handled.

"So what exactly is your problem?" Sirius asked bluntly in Herbology. They were listening to the professor lecture and Sirius had made sure to be near Angela. Angela didn't raise her eyes to meet Sirius'. She only shrugged and answered,

"I don't know what you mean." Sirius snorted.

"Oh don't play dumb with me! You're dumb enough without pretending." Angela scowled at him, but Sirius plunged on. "You've been acting strange and I want to know why!" Angela sighed.

"It's nothing…really. Forget it."

"But…"

"Mr. Black, Ms. Pierce, please pay attention! If you don't handle these plants just right, it can be fatal! Don't want to go poisoning yourselves, do you?" The Herbology professor scolded.

"No ma'am." Sirius and Angela answered and dropped the conversation…for the moment.

However, Sirius wasn't the only one to wonder about Angela's behavior. Later that day Lily and Cassandra cornered her in the girl's dormitory.

"You can tell us you know. If you have a problem with Remus…well, he's not here now and we won't tell him…we just want to know what's wrong. You can talk to us." Lily offered.

"Nothing is wrong!" Angela huffed. "Honestly! You're making a big deal out of nothing!" Angela pretended to do her homework, so they let her be. She really was growing tired of this.

Then after dinner, Sirius decided to have another crack at it, bringing Peter along for support. Well…actually Peter just kind of followed and watched.

 Unfortunately, this attempt just turned into another insult war and in a matter of minutes, both Sirius and Angela were stalking away angrily, almost forgetting what they were originally fighting about. Not that Sirius forgot or gave up completely. The next morning at breakfast he made sure to sit next to Angela so that he could interrogate her further. For him it was now a game of how long it would take before she finally gave up.

"Tell me."

"No."

"Tell me."

"No!"

"Tell me!"

"NO! Now will you leave me alone! You're driving me up a wall!" Sirius scowled at Angela.

"Look, whatever it is, you've acted shameful toward Remus and it's about time you confessed! So out with it!" Sirius demanded.

"It's none of your business, is it?! If there were a problem, which I'm not saying that there is, it's between me and Remus! For once, Sirius, will you please keep your fat head out of my business."

"But…"

"Leave me alone!" Angela stomped away, looking thoroughly ruffled.

Angela ran to the Gryffindor common room, hoping for a moment's peace.

"He'll never leave you alone you know." Angela whipped around to see James leaning against and armchair. He had followed her.

James had been the only one not to approach Angela. He too was curious, but he didn't think that antagonizing her would do any good. So he watched her and tried to come up with the answer from his own observations. He didn't really come up with any answers, except that she looked troubled and a bit weary, like there was a constant worry in her mind…but what did that have to do with Remus? James' curiosity had gotten the better of him this morning and decided he might as well have a crack at her.

"So you've come to harass me as well, is that it?" Angela asked angrily. She didn't really think it was anyone's business what she did.

          "I didn't say that." James said simply.

"But that's what you've come to do, isn't it?" James sighed.

"Can't you just tell us what's wrong? You may not realize it, but been really rude Remus lately. He's afraid it's something he's done."

"Maybe he has. Did you ever think about that?" Angela bluffed.

"Yes…" James admitted slowly, "but I don't think he has. I'm right aren't I?" Angela looked away, but didn't say anything. "So what is it then? Does it have to do with your little investigation of him? What did you find out?" Angela quickly looked back at James.

"Oh so now you're interested? When I tried to come to you all before, no one wanted to hear about what I thought. No one wanted to hear that there might be something wrong with Remus. Now when you think I've figured it out, you suddenly want to talk?"

"No! Well…that is to say…I…It's not that…we all just want to know why you've been acting like you have. All I was asking was if it had something to do with your suspicions, that's all." Angela was quiet for a moment and then she mumbled something. "What was that?"

"Yes! I found something, alright?" James furrowed his eyebrows. Truth be told, he didn't really think that she would have found anything. He was just hoping that he could stumble on to the real reason she was so cold lately.

"What is it?" he asked simply.

"Yes, Angela, what did you find?!" Angela and James turned and both gasped, finding a very angry Remus. Apparently he had been sitting in an armchair near the fireplace the whole time. He wasn't entirely thrilled to be the topic of such a conversation…and he had a feeling he knew what Angela had discovered. Later he would be terrified that she would tell all, but for now, anger was the only thing that registered in his mind.

Angela didn't know what to say. For a moment she even considered the possibility that her findings could be wrong. It was a fleeting hope; when she saw the fresh cuts and bruises on his face, she knew that she wasn't mistaken. Somewhere in the back of her mind she thought 'January'. She suddenly wished she had never gone looking for this trouble.

Remus was growing impatient waiting for her to reply.

"What? No answer?! Can't you remember what you found…when you were looking through my personal business…that made you avoid me so?! Speak would you?!" 

Angela hadn't seen Remus this angry before, well except that time in Craig's office, but that was different…that anger hadn't been directed toward her. She was afraid of this new Remus…or was this just the real Remus? The real werewolf Remus. She thought maybe this is why all those books made werewolves out to be monsters. She felt sick for even thinking such a thought about her 'friend', but what if that's the truth? Angela felt tears in her eyes and before either James or Remus could say anything more, she turned and ran to the girls' dormitory, where neither could follow. She cried herself to sleep and missed her classes for the day.

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A/N: Short chapter, I know. I've been busy lately! I'm trying to write more often, honest! Please review!

Thanks to… 

Neoma

Rotae

Stormey-Skye

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters, it is most appreciated. 


	31. Friendships in Turmoil

A/N: You'll be happy to know that I have the next two, maybe even three chapters all written, just have to type them up. I can't wait! I'm swamped with homework right now so I'm not sure when I'm going to get them posted. It's strange, it seems like I'll go through a period of time when none of my teachers give out homework and then, all of a sudden, they all gang up on me and give bunches of homework AT THE SAME TIME! Why can't they just spread it out evenly?

Disclaimer: I am proud to say that this story is mine! However, the backdrop and many of the characters are not.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice 

CHAPTER 31- Friendships in Turmoil

Remus felt betrayed. He knew that he didn't have any right to feel that way, that he should have expected Angela's reaction, but somehow it still stung.

When Remus first came to Hogwarts, he knew that he couldn't really ever form lasting friendships because sooner or later his friends would find out just exactly what he was and then they would turn from him. However, he had hoped that this revelation would come later rather than sooner.

Angela didn't come to classes the day he had yelled at her and Remus decided it was probably because she was too terrified to be anywhere near him. Why did he have to yell at her? He knew that he had made the situation ten times worse by yelling at her, but he couldn't help it, he had been angry.

Even now, a couple weeks later, Angela still avoided him like the plague. He pretended that it didn't matter, but it did, it mattered a lot to him.

The others didn't really mention the subject, Remus got the feeling that James had talked to the rest of them and told them to be careful around Remus and Angela.

However, Remus didn't think Angela had told anyone the real reason for their dissent. If she had, surely Remus would have been kicked out of his dormitory by James, Sirius and Peter. This caused Remus a great deal of confusion…why hadn't she told everyone about him? Was she afraid to let people know that she had been snooping into other peoples' business? Surely that wouldn't been an issue after they found out just what his business was…so why hadn't she said anything?

Then there was always some hope buried in the back of Remus' mind, hope that Angela didn't really know his secret at all. After all, she only said that she had found out what his secret was...she never actually said what the secret was out loud…maybe she had come to the wrong conclusion. That didn't make sense though, because what could possibly be so bad that she wouldn't talk to him if it wasn't that he was a werewolf?

These thoughts made Remus' head spin and he found himself wishing he had never come to Hogwarts…which was ridiculous since these past few months had been the best of his life. Still, he now felt like he had been given the greatest gift in the world, only to have the threat of losing it all hang constantly over his head. It was rather tiring.

The thing that troubled Remus the most was the uncertainty and so, when he finally couldn't handle it anymore, he decided it was time to have a chat with his former friend.

As for Angela's state, she felt like a nervous wreck. Just being around Remus was troubling to her. She hated to admit it, but she was afraid of him, even more so since he had lost his temper with her. At first her fear had stemmed out of the fact that she knew nothing about werewolves, except of course what she had read in books. Now she had experience with the bad side of a werewolf's temper and she could make up her own mind whether or not to be afraid. She was definitely afraid.

It pained her greatly to admit this fear for two reasons. One, because she had never seen herself as a person to be easily frightened. In fact, she prided herself on being able to stand up against anyone. The second reason was that Remus had been a good friend up until that one day. She didn't want to believe that he could be dangerous, but how could she ignore his actions?

Then again, whenever she thought of this, a voice in her head asked her if she would have been so afraid of him if he weren't a werewolf. What if he wasn't a dark creature? Would his outburst still frighten her so? Sirius got angry all the time and she certainly wasn't afraid of him…so why was she so intimidated by Remus? She told herself that Remus just simply was more fearsome when he was angry, more dangerous even, but did she only think that because she knew what he was?

She didn't know how to sort her feelings out, but she did know that things couldn't go on the way they were forever and sooner or later, the whole situation would explode and she wasn't sure how it was going to end. For the moment she was happy to leave it as is, ignoring the problem as best she could. Remus had also seemed okay with this arrangement, that's why when he came to her and asked if they could talk, she was so in shock.

They decided to go for a walk outside, to be away from prying ears.

"So what exactly did you want Remus?" Angela said after a minute. She was eager to get to the bottom of thing so that she could go inside…it was cold!

Remus gulped, it was now or never.

"I was just wondering…well…I know how you've been avoiding me and I just…I want to know…I mean I think I know…but I'm not sure." Angela was getting annoyed. Why was he now acting so timid? She had seen the real Remus…or had she?

"Spit it out Remus, my teeth are beginning to chatter." Remus shivered, not so much from the cold weather, but from Angela's icy tone. He took a deep breath and began again.

"Well, you said you knew my secret right?" Angela was taken aback by this question, but still she nodded. "Err…I guess I just wanted to know exactly what you think my secret is…because I think it would be a shame for us to stop talking if you don't even have the right reason."

Angela was a little insulted by this…did he think that she would act the way she was without a good reason? Did he think she wasn't smart enough to figure his secret out? Sure it took her a little while, but considering she didn't even know werewolves existed, she thought she had been rather quick in her discovery.

"Why Remus? Do you have that many secrets that you can't even keep track of them anymore?" She didn't know why she said it, but she regretted it immediately. Hurt flashed through Remus' eyes, but he quickly turned his head away so that she couldn't see. "Remus, I…I know that you are…I know that you are a werewolf! There are you happy?" Angela then proceeded to turn and run back to the castle, she didn't want to be there in case Remus blew up again. She also felt a little strange about saying that out loud…embarrassed almost.

There went Remus' hopes of Angela mistaking his secret.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* 

A/N: Angela Angela, Angela…tsk tsk! Well, I hope to have the next chapter up soon. Please review!

Thanks to… 

Neoma – Yay! New chappie!

Rotae – I hope this helps with your Remus addiction. ;-)  More next chapter!

Someone – Hey! Welcome back! Don't worry, I total understand your plight with junior year…I'm a junior too. Don't feel bad for not reviewing, I know you're busy. I'm just happy you're back! I was beginning to wonder if you were alive… :-) 

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters, it is most appreciated. 


	32. It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Get...

A/N: Sorry this took so long, it's been a long couple of weeks. Anyway, I actually had a different chapter written for this update, but I decided to do this a little differently. The next chapter should be up soon, I think. I have another chapter written already, but now I think I might want to add something in between this one and that one. Anyway, I hope to have that done in the next couple days, maybe even tomorrow (hopefully).

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything having to do with Harry Potter. But you already knew that didn't you?

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice

CHAPTER 32- It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Gets Hurt

"What are those?"

Lily looked up and saw James hovering over her, looking perplexed.

"They're muggle playing cards." She explained as she shuffled the cards. Remus was also looking at her strangely.

"What do they do?" Remus asked as he watched her carefully.

"They don't _do_ anything. You play games with them…like go fish."

"But…where are the fish?" James asked dumbly. Lily shook her head and chuckled to herself.

"Never mind." She carefully began stacking the cards one-by-one into a house. James and Remus watched her every move, fascinated by the muggle cards and the skill of Lily's hands. They were soon joined by Sirius and Peter. Peter joined James and Remus in their fascination, but Sirius did not find the simple building of a card house all that interesting.

"I'm bored!" He said after a few minutes.

"So go find someone to bother, Sirius." James said without looking at him. "How do you keep them up like that? Is it magic?" Lily shook her head.

"No, you just have to know how to balance them." Lily said with a sly smile. The three boys nodded in agreement.

"Hello! I said I'm bored! Let's do something!" Sirius said waving his hands around.

"You know Sirius, contrary to what you may believe, the world doesn't revolve around your state of activity. Maybe you should learn how to entertain yourself." James said, causing Sirius to huff angrily.

"What's so great about you stupid house thing anyway? Anyone can do that."

"I can't." Peter said. Sirius glared at Peter for being unhelpful.

"You don't count Peter. Now listen," Sirius ignored a protest from Peter and continued, "I think we should all go prank the Slytherins."

"Sirius, we prank the Slytherins practically everyday." Remus said.

"Right, and we haven't done so today, so let's go."

"No, I want to watch."

"Me too." James agreed.

"Me three." Peter added. Sirius sighed frustratedly and picked up a stack of Lily's cards.

"Look, there's nothing to it." Sirius began placing cards in various odd positions on Lily's house. "You just put one here, one there."

"Sirius!" Lily cried as the house began to wobble.

"See, it's really not that interesting, anyone do it. Now can we…" Sirius was interrupted by the card houses crumbling flat onto the table. "Oops." Lily looked angry and pulled out her wand.

"You better run Sirius." Lily warned. Sirius put up his hand in defense.

"Now Lily, you're the nice one remember, you wouldn't hex me, would you?" But he saw the glint in her eye and knew that she would.

"Run Sirius!" Peter shouted, and Sirius did. Lily chased him around throwing hexes at him. Sirius was scared, he knew Lily was good in Charms and he didn't have much of a shot while running around in the common room. He never knew Lily could be so aggressive! Then again, he hadn't really ever messed with her before. He decided to keep this little incident in mind for later. He wasn't sure that he liked an angry Lily.

Luckily for Sirius, a distraction in the form of Angela and Cassandra entered the common room. Sirius quickly ducked behind Angela and held her in front of him for protection.

"Sirius, what are you doing?" Angela demanded, watching as Lily came toward her and Sirius, looking down right deadly.

"It's Lily, she's gone mad! I think you've had a bad influence on her." Sirius whispered. Angela scowled for a moment, but met Lily's eyes and turned her scowl into a grin.

"Aww, poor Dog-Boy needs protection?" Sirius grimaced at the nickname, but made a small affirming noise. "Too bad." Angela said abruptly, wrenched herself from Sirius grip and stood aside. Lily immediately took the opportunity available, Sirius would have a pink face for quite a few hours to come.

The others were all laughing uncontrollably, in part because Sirius kept trying, in vain, to make indignant faces. It just made the color of his skin look all the more comical. A few jokes were thrown Sirius' way by Angela and James, causing the others to giggle all the more. Lily looked quite satisfied.

As soon as the laughter died down, Cassandra, Sirius and Lily sat down by the others and began chatting away. Angela, however, hesitated, which did not go unnoticed by Remus. He wondered if she really believed that he would do something to her. The truth was, she wasn't so much afraid that Remus would hurt her. Even though she had been losing some sleep over the matter, she was pretty sure he wouldn't hurt her, at least not with the rest of their friends around, but she was a little uncomfortable around him, even more so since their last conversation. Luckily for them both, Lily got an idea of how to cure Sirius' boredom.

"I have an idea! Let's go outside, it's not too awfully cold." she suggested.

"No! No! Definitely not! I am not going anywhere looking like this!" Sirius griped. "People will see me!"

"Come on Sirius, are you saying that you're afraid of what people will think? Maybe you're a little afraid of that little Slytherin girl seeing you." James asked, once again at the verge of laughter.

"No!" Sirius said immediately. "It's just that I don't fancy getting my butt beaten today."

"We'll protect you. Let's go. You did say that you wanted to do something!" James reminded him. He then grabbed Sirius' arm and began dragging him out of the common room. The others got up and followed, but Angela stayed rooted in her spot.

"Aren't you coming?" Lily asked. Angela took a deep breath and then she too followed. She wasn't about to be left out just because Remus was going, too.

When they got outside, they discovered that there was still some left over snow on the ground, but it was in fact not that cold, at least not for February.

"Hey Remus!" Remus turned around and was hit in the face with a snowball. Remus wiped his face with his arm and saw James grinning at him. This meant war. He packed a snowball and threw it at James, hitting him just below the chin. Soon the whole group was in on the snowball fight, with every man for himself. Shouting and screaming and laughter could be heard across the grounds, but they didn't care, they were having too much fun.

Remus was soaked to the bone, but he had never felt warmer. 'This is how life should always be,' he thought, 'just having fun with friends.' Even Angela seemed to forget her worries and conflicts with Remus. She even stood close to him for a duration of the fight. It was a good time, but good times don't last forever.

Angela and Remus were nearly back to back in the fight without even realizing it. What happened next, it was hard to tell, Remus had just hit Sirius in the back of the head and was laughing hysterically. Sirius didn't find it so funny and all Remus saw before being tackled to the ground was a pink blur. He was thrown back into Angela. Angela didn't even know what hit her until she and Remus were on top of each other, struggling to regain their senses. Remus accidently threw his arm sideways and hit Angela in the nose, causing it to bleed furiously. Angela cried out in pain and Remus managed to pull himself off of her. Remus paled at the sight of Angela with a bloody nose and a furious look.

"Oh my…are you okay?" Remus reached out to try and help her, but she smacked it away. Remus' stomach clenched and he knew that this would not be good.

"Stay away!" The others looked at her a little stunned.

"Angela, it wasn't his fault, I…" Sirius began, but Angela wasn't really listening. She suddenly remembered why she had been avoiding Remus, he was dangerous. He could hurt people…he hurt her. Somewhere, deep inside her mind, she knew that it wasn't really Remus' fault, that it wasn't even really Sirius' fault, but she wasn't thinking about that at the moment. She was more focused on the pain and blood coming from her nose and the freezing cold she felt all over her body. She felt tired, irritable and the strong urge to cry, though she hid it well.

"Shut up Sirius!" Angela shouted. At this point, James had had enough. He knew that Angela and Remus were fighting, but this was just ridiculous!

"Angela, I don't know what you're problem is, but get over it! Remus was trying to help you!" Angela snorted, which sent a sharp pain threw her entire head.

"Help me! He was the one who hurt me!"

"That wasn't even his fault!" James said angrily.

"James, just leave it." Remus pleaded.

"No! She has no right to talk to you like that! You were just being kind."

"If you don't mind, I'm still bleeding here, I'd like to go to the hospital wing now." Angela said, rising slowly to her feet, wavering for just a moment.

"Maybe if you had accepted Remus' help, you would have been there already!" James said, not willing to let her off the hook so easily.

"I don't need any of _his_ help, thank you very much!"

"What is wrong with _his_ help? What did he ever do to you?" James asked, gesturing madly toward Remus. "All he did was try to help!"

"Well, he lied first of all!" Angela shouted without thinking. This took James aback and he floundered for a minute. "Oh that's right, you don't know because he is still lying to you!" Angela looked around and added, "all of you!" Remus watched in horror, this was it, this was the end. He could do nothing more than watch the train wreck occur, he didn't even think he could speak if he wanted to.

"What?" Cassandra asked quietly, not daring to believe the accusation.

"That's right! You all take his side, I know you do! Remus isn't as kind and perfect as you all think. He has his flaws too. He's human just like us…sort of." The others were in almost a trance now, they had been wondering about the fight between Angela and Remus and now they were on the verge of figuring it all out and somehow they weren't sure if they really wanted to hear what had happened, afraid that it might be too terrible to bear.

"What do you mean 'sort of'?" Peter asked timidly.

"I mean he's not exactly human, not like us!" Remus felt like someone had punched his stomach…no, not even his stomach…his heart. She was right of course, he wasn't really a normal human. He wasn't really like them, he could pretend, but that didn't change the facts. The others just stared on, not really understanding.

"What…" Sirius began, but Remus cut him off.

"I'm a werewolf." It had taken all his strength to say this and now that he did, he felt empty, like that was the last thing he would ever say to his friends. He was met with only silence and he just couldn't take it anymore, He turned and ran from them, back to the castle. He wouldn't let them see him cry, ever.

Angela just stood there. She couldn't believe what she had just done. The first thought that popped in her mind was, 'poor Remus'. Her mind was back to its' normal functioning order, but now she was left with the damage done by her own carelessness. She tried to reason with herself that she had only told the truth and that maybe they deserved to know. They should know the danger they could be in, right? Somewhere in the back of her mind, a voice asked 'what danger?', but she ignored it and began walking toward the castle, she really did need to do something about her nose.

No one said anything and for a long time, no one moved. No one knew quite what to think and they all suddenly felt very, very alone.

A/N: Okay, so another chapter completed. Yay! I'm sorry for making you guys wait so long for chapters, but I've been really busy lately. Please review!

Thanks to…

 cyberian-otter – Yes, poor Remus, and it just keeps getting worse, doesn't it. Don't worry! I love Remus too much to keep up this torture for long!

Wydinel Sheergale – Thank you for your support! I wasn't really sure how people would react to the whole 'Angela doesn't react all perfect and loving' thing. I've read a lot of stories with that scenario and know that for the most part it doesn't really ring true for everyone just to immediately accept Remus for what he is. I'm glad you liked it.

Someone – Yes, she told everyone! Well…actually Remus told everyone, but close enough. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Good luck with prom and all that!

Rotae – You called me a silly girl…hmmm…well, I guess I am so that's okay! I'm glad to help with your Remus addiction, I understand perfectly as I have an addiction to both Remus and Sirius!

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters, it is most appreciated.


	33. Talking Things Out

A/N: I can't find a job…this sucks! Sorry. Anyway…so I spent some of my jobless time writing this story. At least I was being halfway productive. I don't know if you remember that Cassandra is a Seer, but know that she is, not like a super gifted and in control Seer, but a Seer nonetheless. Also remember that Sirius was born in a muggle family because I started this story before the 5ht book came out and I was too lazy to change it afterwards.

Disclaimer: I disclaim all

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice

CHAPTER 33- Talking Things Out

No one saw Remus the rest of that day, presumably he was avoiding them.

"Maybe we should look for him." Cassandra suggested when he didn't show up for dinner (Angela didn't show up either, but no one seemed very concerned). The others pondered this notion for a moment, but James quickly discarded this idea.

"I don't think he wants to be found right now, he looked pretty upset." The others nodded slowly. James lowered his voice so that even those sitting right next to him could barely hear him. "Besides, what are we supposed to say to him?" No one knew the answer to that question; the whole thing really was shocking.

Cassandra wasn't sure if she should say what she was thinking, that they shouldn't judge Remus by this anomaly. She knew werewolves weren't really a very popular group in the wizarding world, but then again, neither were Seers. She wonders how they would react if they knew what she was. True, Seers weren't as dangerous…mostly, but still… She found herself rooting for Remus in her mind, hoping that he would be accepted this group, he didn't deserve to be cast aside. She took a deep breath and decided to speak her mind…sort of.

"I think…we should tell him what we think, no beating around the bush, it only makes things more confusing."

"Okay…" James said a little apprehensively.

"But first, I was wondering…what do you all think?" They looked around at each other as if asking permission to speak their own thoughts.

"I think…" James began, "I think we should wait until we're somewhere private to talk about this." He said, eyeing a couple of 2nd year Gryffindors, who were paying close attention to the group since they saw the way James and Cassandra were whispering. "I think we owe him at least a little privacy." Cassandra nodded in agreement, she was actually encouraged by James' consideration, but wouldn't let her get ahead of herself.

After dinner, they returned to the common room, hoping for some privacy, but had no such luck. People had started to pay attention to this group of 1st years because of their constant pranks, a feat that Sirius and James were particularly proud of. On the downside, people seemed to be frequently listening into their private conversations, hoping to get hint at what the next big prank would be.

Lily suggested they move to an empty classroom that she and Remus had stumbled upon a few days before. They needed to use James' invisibility cloak to get around and it was a tight fit with all of them, but somehow they did it and even made it to the classroom without tripping, albeit very slowly.

"Whew! Someone needs to take a shower!" James said after removing the cloak. He looked accusingly toward Peter who just shrugged.

"What?"

"Alright then…" Cassandra said, changing the subject, "I still want to know what everyone thinks about this." Sirius looked at her oddly.

"Who made you moderator?"  Cassandra shrugged.

"It was just a question." She muttered.

"So this is real then, the werewolf thing?" Lily asked. Being muggle-born, she was always told that werewolves were just fairytales.

"Yeah…it makes sense really. I mean, look at all the times he disappeared, it was probably because of the full moon." James reasoned.

"And remember all the scratches and things that Angela was always going on about? Those were probably from his transformations as well." Cassandra added. She wondered idly how they all had managed to ignore Angela's suspicions when the signs that something was wrong was staring them right in the face.

"I don't even know…I mean…werewolves! I had a hard enough time comprehending I was a witch!" Lily said incredulously. Sirius nodded in understanding.

"My mom used to tell me that werewolves were dangerous. She used to say that they didn't belong in normal society." Peter said, somewhat absently.

"My neighbor used to tell me the same thing. When I was a little boy, he used to tell me horror stories about werewolves hunting me down at night while I was sleeping and eating me. I had nightmares for years." James said, shivering at the memory. Sirius scrunched up his face.

"You were afraid that werewolves were going to hunt specifically you, break into your house and eat you?"  James blushed.

"Well I was young…" he mumbled.

"But you're not afraid now, are you James?" Cassandra asked.

"Well no, not really…"

"And he's been in your dormitory for months now. Has he tried to eat you? Any of you?" Cassandra gagged at the mere absurdity of the question. Of course he hadn't tried to eat them, it was Remus!

"No." James answered and Sirius and Peter shook their heads.

"Well there you have it." Sirius, Peter and Lily still looked troubled while James just looked thoughtful.

"I don't want to be the ignorant muggle-born here, but I really don't know whether to trust Remus or not." The others looked at Sirius with a little surprise. None of them had seen with such seriousness etched in his features. He was usually only serious when he was angry…or afraid.  "I mean, I don't know anything about werewolves to be honest and I don't know if they're dangerous or not. I don't want to believe Remus is dangerous, he's been a good friend so far, but…people lie, don't they? Then again, Dumbledore wouldn't let him live in our dormitory if he was dangerous, would he? Unless…Dumbledore doesn't know?" James waved his hand, dismissing this idea.

"No, all werewolves have to be registered. Dumbledore has to know."

"Right. But on the other hand, why would everyone make such a big deal about werewolves if there wasn't some truth to the danger? I mean, look at how you all reacted. It wasn't as if he said, 'Hey I'm werewolf' and you all said 'Okay, want to go play chess now?', you know? You guys are the ones that should know about this, since you grew up knowing werewolves were real." Sirius finished his rambling and focused mainly on James, but also on Cassandra and Peter. He wanted an answer to this dilemma from them, being that they were brought up in the wizarding world. Was it really fair to ask him what he thought when he didn't know anything about the subject at hand?

James sighed, how could he answer that? There was of course some danger involving werewolves or, as Sirius said, it wouldn't be such a big deal. Luckily he didn't have to answer that question, Cassandra did it for him.

"People are afraid because there _is_ some danger." Sirius' head dropped. She had the feeling that Sirius was waiting for someone to tell him that it would all be okay and that this didn't change anything. Secretly she wanted to be told the same thing, but she knew it wasn't as simple as that. "It's only during the full moon though, during their transformations. That's the only time that werewolves are dangerous. I mean think of Remus…have you ever even seen him angry…_really_ angry?"

"Yes." James said suddenly and all eyes were on him. "Well…Angela and I were talking and we didn't know that Remus was listening and…he was really mad." Lily's brow furrowed.

"What were you talking about?" Lily asked.

"Erm…about him. About his secret. I think Angela was about to tell me about it and then Remus just…well he was angry, we'll leave it at that."

"Of course he was angry! Wouldn't you be angry if you found your 'friends' sitting around gossiping about you?" Cassandra threw up her hands in frustration. It wouldn't do them any good to analyze every little action Remus has ever made, especially when those actions are justified.

"You asked us if we had ever seen him really angry!"

"Well I could ask you if you if you had ever seen Sirius angry and what would you say."

"Of course I have! He gets into a fight with…someone at _least_ once a week!"

"Hey!" Sirius sat straight up and tried to look insulted.

"It's true isn't it?" Sirius seemed to think for a moment and then just nodded in agreement.

"I don't think this is helping." Lily said suddenly. "I don't feel like I know anything more than I did a half an hour ago. I think we need to talk to Remus, he's the only one who really has the answers."

"Will he even _want_ to answer us?" Peter wondered out loud. "It didn't seem like he was very eager to talk about it." James shrugged.

"We'll deal with that when we come to it. For now, I don't really want to talk about it anymore, I'm tired." James, Cassandra, Lily and Peter all started to get up to leave, assuming that their meeting was over, but Sirius called them to a halt.

"What about Angela?" he asked. They hadn't talked to her yet, but they already knew that she hadn't handled the situation all that well so far.

"I think she's been terribly close minded. We all saw how she reacted and I don't think she bothered to talk it over with anyone yet. She's hasn't talked to any of us and I doubt she's talked to Remus." Cassandra wasn't very happy with Angela at the moment.

"But she doesn't know anymore than Lily and I do. She also had to deal with it all alone…I don't know what I would have done if I was the only one who knew. I wouldn't know what to think. Hell! I still don't."

"Sirius! _You're_ actually defending _Angela_? What is the world coming to?" James said with a smirk, hoping to lighten the mood a bit.

"NO!" Sirius said quickly. "I just don't think we should be pointing fingers at _anyone_ yet. I mean, we agreed to hear Remus out, but not Angela? What if it had been me or Lily?" Sirius asked logically. James just chuckled to himself and shook his head.

"Okay, okay! Enough excitement for one day! Let's go." They all gathered together once more under the cloak, with James holding his breath most of the way and made their way back to the common room. None of them felt really resolved on anything, though they did all seem to feel a little better after getting things out into the open. That is until the boys returned to their dormitory to find no sign of Remus.

A/N: I finally thought up a good non-evil plot for Peter! Unfortunately, I can't put it into effect until at least 6th year and that's at the very earliest. Anyway, I know that shot at Peter's B.O. was a little cheap, but I have to entertain myself somehow, don't I? Please review!

Thanks to…

Rotae – Sorry, no Remus in this chappie. I promise a big dose of him in the next one though…unless I decide to write another chapter in between this one and that, which I don't think will happen, but you never know. The next chapter was supposed to be Ch.31!

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters, it is most appreciated.


	34. Werewolf in Shining Armor

A/N: I have had this chapter basically written for over a month now and I'm happy to finally be using it.

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Harry Potter. Want to make something of it? Huh punk? Want to take this outside? I'll take you down!

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice

CHAPTER 34- Werewolf in Shining Armor

James, Peter and Sirius didn't know what to do when they found Remus not in his bed that night. They wondered if perhaps his absence was due to his condition and he had just gone…wherever it was that he went during the full moon. They really didn't know about the lunar calendar and so couldn't know for sure. However, they agreed that it was much more likely that Remus had simply decided to stay away from them all for a while, to clear his head and even to let them digest this new information. Unfortunately, they didn't know exactly what had happened to Remus and couldn't be sure of his whereabouts. They briefly considered finding a professor to investigate, but decided against it. They didn't want to get Remus or themselves in trouble. They figured that Remus would return when he was ready and then they would have the big talk.

Unfortunately, Remus did not show up all the next day either, that's when they began to worry. They knew that Remus was probably very upset about what had happened, but they didn't know just what he would do about it. After dinner that day, they finally decided that it was time to talk to a teacher. That was the first time that they really realized that, not only had Remus lied, but their professors had as well.

"I'm sorry boys, but Remus has gone home for a day or two, his mother is very ill." McGonagall explained. They knew better, now they all knew that Remus never had a sick mother or a dead grandmother, but he himself was sick. They had been lied to by not only their friend, but by the adults they were entrusted to.

Now most people would probably let the whole situation get the best of them. They would ponder over the problem and worry about it, never quite solving their troubles, but agonizing over them none the less. Not Sirius, Sirius wasn't most people. Sirius didn't agonize over anything, he merely distracted himself from whatever was troubling him. In Sirius' opinion, distracting oneself from his or her problems could be most entertaining. After all, what better way to distract oneself than a good prank.

The next day, Sirius continued about his business as usual. For weeks Sirius had been looking for ways to torture Lucius Malfoy. You see, Malfoy had taken to practically stalking Bianca Black around Hogwarts. Sirius in turn had taken to stalking Malfoy. Sirius just couldn't understand what a slimy git like Malfoy would want with his cousin, nor could he understand how Malfoy thought he even had a chance…it was _Malfoy_! It just didn't make any sense. Sirius figured that he could torture Malfoy to the point where he no longer liked Bianca.

James of course was more than happy to participate in Lucius' torture and seemed to agree with Sirius wholeheartedly that Malfoy was crazy and needed to be discouraged. Either that or he saw humoring Sirius as a good way to justify pranks on the love-struck Slytherin…not that he really cared to be justified, but it was the principle of the thing.

For weeks, the pair had been discussing ways to end Malfoy's infatuation with Sirius' cousin once and for all. Their plan was to humiliate Malfoy in front of Bianca to the extent that Malfoy would cringe in embarrassment at even the thought of approaching Bianca. They wanted to make Malfoy blush anytime he was even in the same room with her. To Sirius and James it seemed logical that if Malfoy couldn't even look at Bianca anymore, he certainly couldn't pursue her. The question was how to achieve this.

There were plenty of ill-conceived ideas, such as another Veritaserum prank. This was quickly discarded as it had already been done, by them no less, and far too much trouble. They considered appearance altering charms; if only they could turn Malfoy into a girl! This plan was also thrown out, it quite simply wasn't embarrassing enough. No they needed something big, something absolutely humiliating. Eventually an idea did come to them. The plan: to de-robe Mr. Malfoy.

This scheme came from James, who claimed that he came upon the idea through a dream of his, one of those dreams where you are naked and don't realize it until it's too late. James thought that there was nothing more embarrassing than that. James tried describing the dream…for reference, but Sirius was adamant about ignoring James story; he really didn't need to hear about such things.

The trouble with this plan was that they had to be very careful. They didn't really think that the professors would find it as amusing as they would, what with the indecency. They had to be perfectly sure that no professor found out, but still make sure that Bianca saw their antics, otherwise it would all be in vain. They had been waiting for the right opportunity to present itself.

Fortunately, an opportunity did present itself. That day, Sirius had been watching his cousin and Malfoy, hoping for today to be the day; he was more fidgety than ever. His vigil paid off. After finishing breakfast, Bianca and a couple of her Ravenclaw friends left the Great Hall together. Malfoy followed them, as he usually did, and Sirius and James, seeing their chance, were not far behind.

Bianca and her friends stopped in the girls' toilet and Malfoy stopped and waited just down the hall. Sirius and James grinned at each other and knew that it was finally time. This was perfect...no professors in sight and only a few students here and there, leaving very few witnesses to snitch on them.

They watched only a few moments as Malfoy looked dreamily toward the bathroom, making sure that he was really unsuspecting of them. Then they pounced him from behind, quickly pulling his robes over his head, giving Malfoy only a brief glimpse of his attackers. Malfoy struggled as hard as he could, but James held him back. Sirius grabbed Malfoy's undergarments and pulled them to the floor. Frankly, being that close to a mostly naked Malfoy made them feel a little sick, but for the sake of their prank they were able endure it for a few moments. James and Sirius quickly let go and ran for cover.

Bianca and her friends came out just in time to see Malfoy struggling to untangle himself from the robes above his head. At first they screamed, shocked at being greeted by such a sight. However, they soon recovered and burst out into a fit of giggles.

"L…look…look at him! Who is that?" One of Bianca's friends asked through her laughter. "He's so…pale!" At that moment, the robes fell back down, revealing a very flustered Malfoy.

"Oh my…it's Lucius Malfoy!" Bianca's other friend exclaimed. Bianca who had been trying to shield her eyes, now just held a hand over her mouth to hide her laughter. She felt bad for the boy, but she had to admit that it was kind of funny.

Malfoy tried to hurry away, but forgot that his underwear was still around his ankles and tripped. He caught himself before falling, but struggled in returning his underwear to its proper position. He scurried off as quickly as he could, leaving several students in hysterics.

Sirius and James congratulated each other on a job well done. Sirius then hurried off to the boys' toilet to wash his hands. Touching Malfoy's underwear was not his favorite activity, but he did believe that his objective had been reached and so it his disgust was well worth it.

It didn't take long for the news of what had happened to spread. There was hardly a soul, at least out of the students, who didn't know what Sirius and James had done. James and Sirius were infinitely proud of their accomplishment and went around patting each other on the back all day. Surprisingly, they had gained an entourage of other Gryffindors, all of them dying to hear the tale. Sirius and James of course embellished the story more and more as the day carried on.

Malfoy was the only one not laughing, in fact he was furious. His fellow Slytherins, even first-years were laughing at him…it was an absolute disgrace! Malfoy vowed that he would have his revenge and he would have it soon. He had seen Sirius Black just before his robes had been pulled over his head, but he had not seen anyone else. However, it was common knowledge that Black didn't do anything without his companions and Malfoy knew exactly who to blame.

The first Black's friends that Malfoy found was Angela and to him it didn't much matter that she didn't actually have anything to do with the prank. For him, she was just as guilty as Black and so he wasted no time in confronting her.

"You filthy little Mudblood!" Malfoy grabbed Angela's arm and spun her around. He had caught up to her in one of the corridors and snuck up behind her. Angela quickly ripped her arm from his grip and glared at him in disgust. "I suppose you think it was real funny what you and your friends did!" Malfoy spat.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Malfoy." She of course did know exactly what he was talking about, even though James and Sirius hadn't bothered to involve her, but she thought it would be best if Malfoy thought otherwise.

"I think you do. You'll all pay, I promise." Malfoy said lowly. He had an evil glint in his eyes.

"Ooo! I'm really scared!" Angela threw her hands up in mock terror. Much to her dismay, however, she did feel a tiny pinch of fear in her heart. Malfoy looked livid, more so now than ever…and she knew that Slytherins could be a violent bunch when they wanted to be. She also knew that Malfoy was not unknowledgeable in the field of dark arts. She wasn't sure how well she would fare in a duel with the older boy. Still, she pushed these thoughts to the back of her mind and refused to back down. "What are you going to do? Call your precious Professor Craig on me?" Malfoy stepped toward her ominously and Angela made a conscious effort not to back away. She could practically feel the anger radiating off Malfoy.

"No, I think I can handle you myself, thanks." Angela smirked, looking more confident than she felt.

"You really think so? You think you're really tough don't you…the big man!" She lowered her voice into a deadly whisper. "You're not as big as you think," Then her grin twisted evilly and she added, "At least…that's what Bianca told me." Angela knew immediately that that was the wrong thing to say. Malfoy's eyes widened and Angela winced as Malfoy brought his hand up to strike her. In those few seconds Angela knew that there really was nothing she could do to stop Malfoy, so prepared for the blow.

It never came…

Malfoy's hand was stayed by a rather haggard and irritated looking Remus, who had grabbed Malfoy's wrist. Malfoy glared angrily at Remus and Remus returned the look. Malfoy tried to yank his arm away, but Remus held him for a moment, a show of Remus' strength over Malfoy. It wasn't good to mess with Remus after one of his transformations. Remus then pushed Malfoy into a wall, away from Angela.

"What do you think you're doing" Remus asked angrily. Malfoy said nothing, only straightened himself up and continued to stare at Remus indignantly.

Remus couldn't believe that Malfoy had the nerve to try and hit a girl…in the middle of the corridor no less! He really didn't stop to think of just who he was defending, just that Malfoy was about to do something very wrong and Remus was in no mood to sit back and allow it.

Angela couldn't believe what Remus had just done. Was he really defending her? However, neither had the chance to linger on such thoughts for long; they were soon joined by Crabbe and Goyle.

"Hello boys." Malfoy smirked at Remus and Angela. Now that he had his body guards back, there was no longer a cause for concern. Crabbe and Goyle both headed straight for Remus, Goyle was the first to swing.

"NO!" Angela cried out as she watched Remus double over in pain from a harsh blow to the stomach. A crowd was gathering now, but no one tried to stop the fight. Angela didn't know what to do or how to stop Crabbe and Goyle; she felt completely helpless.

Surprisingly, Remus was able to hold his own fairly well in the fight. He got in a few good hits to both of his attackers, mostly to their faces and was even able to throw them off of him a couple times. Unfortunately, Remus was only one person who was already so very tired and Crabbe and Goyle were both much bigger than Remus. It was obvious that Remus could not win this fight, though that didn't stop him from trying.

"Break it up! NOW!" Professor McGonagall and Professor Craig pushed their way thought the ever-growing crowd. McGonagall grabbed Goyle and Craig grabbed Crabbe, leaving Remus in the middle.

Angela gasped at the sight before her. Crabbe and Goyle both looked like they had bruises forming on their faces, but Remus by far looked the worst. He was hunched over slightly and had blood coming from his nose and bottom lip. He would almost definitely have a black eye.

"You three! Follow us!" Craig ordered. "Everyone else, MOVE!" The crowd quickly dispersed. McGonagall and Craig began ushering Crabbe, Goyle and Remus away.

"Wait! Professor!" Angela cried. "Remus didn't…" Craig whipped around.

"Ms Pierce, I believe I told you to go!"

"But…"

"NOW!"

"But you don't…"

"Ms. Pierce, twenty house points from Gryffindor! Now go before I take fifty!" Angela's shoulders shrugged in defeat. She tried to catch Remus' gaze, but he didn't look back as he was led away. Remus could only think about what he had lost in the past few days and how those would probably be his last days at Hogwarts.

A/N: So…interesting…Remus defended Angela, what do you think? Please review!

Thanks to…

Cyberian-otter – I am trying to make my chapters a little longer. I should probably go into a little more description, but that's never been my strong point. Oh well, I try. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thanks for reviewing!

Rotae – Here's a bit of Remus for you! Not in his usual form, but I think that Remus still has a whole different side to show us and that's what I'm working on. More Remus next chapter! I hope you enjoy! Thanks for reviewing!

Bianca – I love your name! ;-) I'm glad you've been enjoying my story so far and I hope you like what is to come as well. About the past/present tense thing, yeah…I know. :-( I've always had trouble with that, every time I write something I have to go back and check to make sure I didn't mess the tenses up. On this story I haven't really been that diligent with proofreading…I should probably work on that. Anyway, I'm babbling…thank you for your honesty! I'll try to work on that. Thanks for reviewing!

 Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters, it is most appreciated.


	35. Prayers Unanswered

A/N: Wow…I think that this has been my longest absence yet. Blame it on the day job (that would be school). Finding a college is a pain in the ass.

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter I wouldn't have to worry about going to college.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice

CHAPTER 35- Prayers Unanswered

A physical fight was very rare at the school of magic; most fights were solved magically. Needless to say news of the fight between Remus, Crabbe and Goyle spread fast, even by Hogwarts' gossip line standards.

It was the subject on everyone's lips by dinnertime and everyone had questions. Rumors spread about the whole situation and stories were varied by which house a person belonged to. The Gryffindors claimed Remus to be the victor, while Slytherins insisted on Crabbe and Goyle's triumph.

However, the most disturbing thing about the fight was that there was no clue as to what had happened to the perpetrators. There was no sign from Crabbe, Goyle or Remus; it was all together very strange.

Sitting in McGonagall's office, Remus had no idea that the whole school was wondering about him and his whereabouts. In fact, the only thing that crossed his mind was how he just screwed up everything for himself. He had already known that he would no longer have his friends, but at he least he still had Hogwarts, that would be enough, so he hoped. Now though…now he had nothing. He'd be chucked out of school for sure now!

What had he been thinking!? He knew he couldn't afford to get himself into this sort of trouble. Just being who he is was trouble enough. Why did he put himself in this position to defend someone who treated him like he didn't exist? On the other hand, how could he just stand by and watch Malfoy hurt her? After all, Angela was only acting as expected, acting like everyone would.

Remus, Crabbe and Goyle had all received a good verbal lashing for their actions and told that they would not receive any magical help for their injuries. It was part of their punishment, a learning experience so to speak. Craig apparently believed that if they were made to suffer through the normal healing process, they would be discouraged from such actions.

The three were not even given a chance to explain before McGonagall and Craig dealt out detentions, lectured a bit more and then allowed Crabbe and Goyle to leave and go get the normal bandages. By that time, it had already gotten pretty late and Remus estimated that most of Hogwarts would already be in their common rooms.

Remus didn't know why he was asked to stay behind, though he had an idea. Remus held on to the hope that, since they had already assigned him punishments that he was safe from expulsion. However, he knew that they might have just wanted to deal with Crabbe and Golye before they dealt with him.

"Mr. Lupin!" McGonagall's voice broke his thoughts. She sounded like she was just barely keeping her temper. "Out of all the students, I would think that _you_ would be the most careful about avoiding such situations!" Remus lowered his head in shame. He hated the utter disappointment in her voice. He knew that he had let everyone down; he just wished that he didn't have to hear that tone anymore, from anyone.

"I'm sorry." Remus said quietly. What else could he say? If he would have looked up at that moment, he might have seen McGonagall's expression soften, just slightly. Craig on the other hand, remained unaffected and decided to add his own thoughts.

"Sorry won't cut it. Dumbledore generously let you into this school, knowing the danger…" Remus flushed, "and this is how you repay him?"

"It won't happen again, sir."

Damn right it won't!" Craig would have continued, by the received a warning look from McGonagall and so finished his rant, adding only, "Your parents will be informed of this incident." This made Remus' head snap up. He wasn't going to be expelled? His heart lifted for a moment before plummeting once more. His parents weren't going to be happy.

"Go get yourself fixed up Mr. Lupin." McGonagall said, with almost a hint of pity…almost.

After he had gotten cleaned up and had listened to Madam Pomfrey's scolding for a fair amount of time, Remus trudged back to the common room. He prayed that everyone had gone to bed already. He had no desire to face the inevitable questions tonight.

"Remus," Apparently his prayers would not be answered this time…as usual.

A/N: I don't even know if any of my old readers are still watching out for this story, but if you are, thank you! Please review!

Thanks to…

coup d'etat 1

Taylor

Xany

YoshimiWolfpsaw

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters, it is most appreciated.


	36. The Guilty Mind

A/N: Hey second chapter in one day! Unless it takes like five hours to load, then oh well. Actually, I've had these two chapters basically written since last Spring Break, but it's taken this long to get them typed, tweaked and proofread and this one isn't even proofread very well (excuse the inevitable mistakes, I was getting anxious). It's kind of sad really. Anyway, I don't have any more chapters even slightly written, expect for a few that don't happen even happen until 4th year, fat lot of good that does me. Maybe it's better this way, retyping is highly tedious and not my favorite activity.

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, I would buy about a million boxes of Bottle Caps candy. Currently I am completely Bottle Capless.

The Whole Story by Ebony Ice

CHAPTER 36- The Guilty Mind

Angela had always had trouble sleeping at night. Not necessarily because she had so many worries and troubles, more because she loved the night. Everything was more peaceful, no teachers, no arguing, not that she didn't like to argue sometimes, especially with Sirius, but sometimes, it was just nice to be quiet and still. Tonight however, Angela's sleeping troubles weren't caused by a want of peace, she knew that no matter whether it was night or day, she wouldn't get any peace.

She sat alone in the Gryffindor common room, long after everyone else had gone to bed. She stared out at the waning moon…it was beautiful. She wondered how something so glorious could have caused such trouble in her life…even more so in Remus' life.

Angela had told James, Sirius, Peter, Lily and Cassandra about what had really happened. They were in shock at first, but were soon praising Remus' actions and hoping that he wasn't in too much trouble.

There were also hints toward Angela about her treatment of Remus. The group would slip in little comments here and there, perhaps to make her feel guilty. Angela thought she already felt guilty enough, why did they think that they had to make her feel worse?

Half of her just wanted to believe that he was a monster again; it would make things so much easier. She wouldn't have to face the fact that she was wrong, that she had misjudged Remus based on something as silly as the fact that he was a werewolf. Okay…maybe it wasn't _that_ silly, he did, after all, become a full-blown bloodthirsty monster each month. Her opinion had changed slightly though; now she knew how to distinguish between Remus the werewolf and Remus the boy. The werewolf was the vicious one, but he only came out once a month. The rest of the time Remus was the boy, the sweet innocent boy that she had misjudged. He had never shown a shred of violence toward her, that was more than she could say for Malfoy and Malfoy was just a normal boy! Well…maybe not normal. Still, he was no werewolf, but he was more of a monster than Remus. Hell! She was more of a monster than Remus!

Whatever happened to Remus now…she knew it was her fault. She had provoked Malfoy, Malfoy had been ready to get violent with her, Remus defended her, Crabbe and Golye ganged up on Remus and he defended himself. Remus was the only one who had done the right thing that day and she knew that he was the one facing the harshest consequences.

None of the other students would understand just how much trouble Remus might be in, not even James and them. Angela had done her homework, she knew the views about werewolves, she herself had been influenced by them. Werewolves weren't guaranteed a magical education and for one to be admitted into a school, especially a prestigious one like Hogwarts, was a privilege. Remus had been walking a fine line and today might have just crossed it.

This knowledge was why she was sitting in the common room; she was waiting. Waiting for Remus to come back and reassure her that everything would be all right, that he wasn't kicked out of school. Though, even if that were the truth, what reason would he have to ease any of her fears? She had done nothing but ridicule and ignore him and he had come to her rescue despite all that and gotten himself into horrible trouble. What more could she ask of him?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the opening of the common room door. She held her breath; she knew it must be Remus, yet now she felt totally unprepared to face him.

As Remus stepped through the portrait hole, into the common room, Angela noticed that he really didn't look much different from earlier today. He was no longer dripping with blood, however, bruises could now clearly be seen, even in the dim light of the common room. The thing that worried Angela the most about his appearance was the look of exhaustion and utter defeat on his face. He didn't even seem to notice her and Angela debated for a moment whether or not she should say anything. Maybe she should just let it go for tonight. No, she couldn't, she had to get this out.

Just as she was about to call to him, someone else said,

"Remus." She panicked and quickly sunk down in the armchair she was sitting in, so not to be seen

A/N: Please review!

Thanks also to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters, it is most appreciated.


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